Where Are We Going?

The WAC movement has been generative and transformative. It has spurred innovations in teaching and learning in disciplines as diverse as nursing, engineering, dance, and marketing. The use of writing to support disciplinary learning, a key tenet of WAC, is among the first pedagogical approaches identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as "high-impact practices" (Kuh, 2008). That characterization, coming nearly four decades after Barbara Walvoord's initial WAC seminar, is testimony to the enduring and revolutionary power of the WAC movement, a movement that draws its strength and tenacity from the many contributions of scholars inside and outside of writing studies, scholars who have over time built both a strong community and an impressive body of research, theory, and instructional practice.

The promise of WAC is strong. It can serve—indeed, we argue that it has long served—as a revolutionary force in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Yet our optimism about that promise is tempered by our awareness of the challenges the WAC movement will face, inside and outside the field of writing studies, as the community that has formed around it works to enhance student writing, learning, and critical thinking.