Unvoicing a field's expertise: A two-pronged citation and language analysis

Abstract

The field of Developmental Education (DE) draws from a distinct and multidisciplinary body of research and scholarship to facilitate students' transitions to college and to support their postsecondary academic success. However, highly cited scholars and policymakers external to the field perpetuate negative perceptions of DE, arguing for reform or elimination without inclusion of field experts. Through a combination of Citation Content Analysis and Transitivity Analysis, this study examined citation trends and verb transitivity to uncover the voices privileged as experts within an influential publication by the Community College Research Center and aimed to uncover how the authors (re)presented the DE field, literature, scholarship, its members, and its students. Findings revealed a single citation of an in-field DE scholar and repeated erasure of developmental educators and DE scholarship through passivation of DE professionals as social actors. Implications are discussed for the importance of including inside-field experts’ voices in discussions about their field as a necessary component of developing a critical praxis of integrating scholarship and practice in support of students.