Roger H. Bruning, PhD
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
I have had the wonderful good fortune of having the University of Nebraska (NU) as my home base for most of my academic career. Raised on a farm in rural Nebraska, I arrived at NU many year ago as a 17-year-old college freshman (no kindergarten in my home town yet!) and went on to earn my BA in Modern Languages.
My plans to use my degree as a language teacher or worker in the Foreign Service changed, however, when I took a course in Educational Psychology as part of earning my teaching certificate. Soon I was enrolled full time as a graduate student in NU’s Department of Educational Psychology, earned an MA here, and upon completion of my PhD, was invited to join the department as a faculty member.
While I’ve subsequently taught about and conducted learning and motivational research on topics as varied as science, math, and technology design, I’ve never strayed far from my first loves of language and literacy development, most especially writing. To me, the act of writing is unmatched for helping us better understand ourselves and our world. While I sometimes worry that too many students today now write only because they have to, I also strongly believe that given good reasons to write and supportive contexts for writing, almost everyone can experience writing’s benefits and pleasures.
As Dr. Zeleny and I continue to work with the NWRG, we constantly see how much each of the NWRG participants—students and faculty alike—not only learn from others’ knowledge and perspectives on writing, but also from hearing about each others’ cultural, language, and educational histories and experiences. As a result, our goal for the NWRG not only is to focus on how to design and carry out high quality writing research, but to ensure that this research is enriched by each of our cultural, language, and educational histories.
Mary Garro Zeleny, PhD
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
I documented my childhood seasons in the small journal books my mother gave me. The covers were hardbound with a small rickety gold lock inserted at the side and the pages freshly lined awaiting my written voice. My writing then began as daily events but evolved into poetry, songs, stories, professional and academic writing.
I came to know writing as a powerful instrument of reflection, communication, inspiration and scholarship. My early journal writing endeavors carried to academic spaces as a student at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and bridged my profession as a therapist to community. My writing interests now have circled back to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where I received my PhD and my dissertation study focused on journal writing in college math courses. As I continue to teach various courses in Educational Psychology, I continue to be in awe of the transformative value writing has on students and others in different facets of writing spaces. The rich reflective writing that comes from their journal reflections augments their scholarly writing, as well as assists in processing their research studies. I also observe writing as a connective space in which to form community in different circles of learning.
My outside writing interests have included participation in the Nebraska Writing Project, Nebraska Writers Collective Seven Doctors Project, The University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and various projects combining writing and art. I also have the good fortune of being in writing groups with friends and colleagues in Lincoln, Omaha and other places. These are all activities that lend themselves to rich writing experiences.
I joyfully join Dr. Bruning in co-leading the NWRG, where we have the honor to hold weekly meetings for and with doctoral students aimed at informing research on writing. I am always amazed at the level of curiosity, detail and rigor students bring to the circle with their research on writing. In addition to the intention of having space for students to create and process their studies, we have formed other community connections – all wonderful learning interactions!
