Appendix 2 – Supplemental Materials and Suggested Readings for Ecological Praxis

Return to the video essay: Writing Center Ecologies: Drawing Insights from Environmental Systems

Reflective Prompts

These prompts support writing center practitioners in applying an ecological framework to their local contexts. Building on key principles from our video essay, they invite reflection on institutional dynamics, values, and constraints to foster more equitable, inclusive, and responsive practices.

Principle	Considerations	Reflective Prompts
Scale	Values: The core principles guiding your writing center’s work, such as linguistic justice, accessibility, and equity. Location and modalities: The spaces where the center operates, such as main locations, satellite centers, community-based spaces, and online. Projects: The types of projects and initiatives your center undertakes and supports through consultations, workshops, and/or outreach. Partnerships: The relationships with community partners and regional, national, and international affiliates.	How do your writing center’s core values manifest in your day-to-day work? How are these values reflected in your consultation practices, projects, and broader initiatives? How do the different spaces where your center operates– whether physical (main center, satellite locations, community spaces) or virtual (online consultations, both synchronous and asynchronous)– influence the way your values are enacted? For example, how does the modality of the appointment shape the interaction? How do the projects and initiatives your center undertakes support or challenge the values of your center? In what ways do these projects reinforce your center’s commitments? How do your center’s relationships with community partners and affiliates help foster or challenge the center’s values? In what ways do these partnerships expand your center’s reach and influence?
Relationality	Staff and clients: The individuals in the center, including undergraduates, graduates, faculty, community members, and individuals across various identities and backgrounds, including race, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexuality, and more. Consider how their histories, experiences, and positionalities influence the relationships they form in the center. Writing: The center’s relationship with writing, both in terms of individuals’ personal histories with writing and the larger implications of writing standardization. Consider how standardization may reinforce power dynamics, discipline, and exclusion, and how the center can challenge these norms to create more inclusive writing practices and collaborative relationships.	How do the backgrounds and positionalities of your staff and clients influence the ways in which your center enacts its values? How do power dynamics play out at both the micro level (e.g., consultations and meetings) and the macro level (e.g., the broader institutional and community context)? Who does your center serve? Is it aimed at serving the broader community, students, or any specific groups within or outside the institution? How do these relationships shape the work you do? How do you establish connections and relationships at the beginning of a consultation? What practices help foster trust, collaboration, and mutual understanding between writers and consultants? What is your personal relationship to writing, and how has that relationship influenced you as a consultant or writer? Reflect on how personal histories with writing shape your approach to consultations and how writing is taught or practiced within the center. How does your writing center’s approach to writing– such as practices for working with clients, providing feedback, or addressing different writing genres– reinforce or challenge existing power dynamics? Consider how different practices, like directive versus non-directive consultations, addressing standard language ideologies, or supporting multilingual writers, impact the power relationships in your center. How can your center foster more equitable and inclusive writing practices while addressing the realities students experience both inside and outside of higher education?
Care and Wellbeing	Physical, emotional, and mental well-being: How the writing center environment supports the diverse mental, physical, emotional, and social needs of staff, clients, and administrators. Accessibility: Ensuring that the writing center is accessible to individuals with different mobility, sensory, and cognitive needs (e.g., accessible entrances and seating, consultations in multiple modalities, screen reader-friendly materials, quiet spaces, etc.). Communal care: The ways in which care in the writing center is a communal practice that addresses both individual and collective needs, which includes recognizing and setting boundaries, as well as ensuring that policies and practices support all members of the ecosystem.	How does your center foster an accessible environment for people with different mental, physical, emotional, and social needs? Reflect on the ways you create multiple points of access and how you can continue to expand inclusivity for all individuals who engage with the center. In what ways does your center support communal care? How do staff, consultants, and clients balance individual needs and responsibilities with the collective well-being of the center? How are boundaries set and respected within the center to ensure that care is mutual and that individuals feel supported while maintaining their own well-being? How does your center facilitate communication to address care and well-being? Reflect on how open and transparent communication is encouraged to identify and address individual and collective needs. How can your center create systems for ongoing dialogue that ensures staff and clients feel comfortable to express their needs without fear of judgment or repercussion? What institutional barriers exist that limit your center’s ability to fully embrace collective care? How can your center navigate or challenge these barriers to create a more inclusive and equitable environment?
Belonging	Place and space: How the physical and virtual environments of the writing center shape who feels they belong. Consider the layout, design, accessibility, and atmosphere of these spaces. Power dynamics: How power circulates within the center and influences interactions between staff and clients. Consider how these dynamics are shaped by broader societal structures (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability), and how they manifest in the physical and virtual spaces, as well as through the objects and materials used in the center. Inclusion and exclusion: How writing center practices, such as consultation methods and policies, either foster a sense of belonging or reinforce exclusion. Consider the systemic barriers that may prevent everyone from feeling fully welcomed, and reimagine how consultations and overarching writing center policies can challenge these exclusionary normative structures through flexible session times, varied formats and modalities, neurodivergent-friendly tools, offering food, and more.	What made you feel like you do or don’t belong in the writing center, and who or what influenced that feeling? Reflect on the personal, academic, or institutional factors and relationships that shaped your sense of belonging (or lack thereof), and consider who supported or influenced your decision to engage with the center. How does your writing center challenge or perpetuate the perception of neutrality? Reflect on how the center acknowledges or ignores the circulation of power and oppression in writing practices. In what ways does it recognize the political nature of writing and education? How can your writing center address systemic barriers to cultivate a safe and welcoming environment for all clients and staff? Reflect on how the center’s physical and virtual spaces, policies, and practices either foster a sense of safety and belonging or perpetuate exclusion.
Sustainability	Adaptability and flexibility: How writing center policies and practices adjust to the changing needs of students, staff, and the institution over time. This includes turnover, evolving student needs, and the importance of fostering healthy relationships as people move in and out of the center. Futurity: How the center’s decisions and practices contribute to the sustainability of relationships, values, and resources over time. Consider how policies demonstrate a long-term commitment to justice, care, and fostering a more equitable future. Institutional context: How the center is connected to larger institutional and societal histories, including issues of colonization and land use. Consider the center’s role in sustaining or challenging these histories and values.	How does your writing center create policies and projects that are adaptable and flexible to accommodate the transitory nature of higher education? Reflect on how turnover and evolving needs are managed while fostering long-term and meaningful relationships. How does your center engage or not engage with the institutional and historical context? Reflect on your center’s connection to land, the institution’s history, and the broader societal structures that impact your work. How can the center play a role in sustaining justice across time and space? How does your center balance immediate needs with a long-term vision for sustainability? Reflect on how the center navigates daily operations and short-term goals while keeping a focus on creating a lasting, equitable, and healthy ecosystem.
Justice	Systemic barriers: Recognizing how larger systems of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, ableism) impact access and participation in writing centers. Consider how the center can actively address and dismantle these barriers through intentional practices. Actionable practices: How the writing center can enact ecological principles through everyday actions that promote justice. Consider how policies, consultation practices, and the use of space can challenge inequities and support the well-being of all participants.	What systemic barriers exist that limit participation and belonging in your writing center, and how can they be addressed? Reflect on how your center can work to dismantle these barriers to create a more just and inclusive environment for all participants. How do the small, everyday decisions in your writing center ripple outward to affect justice and well-being? Reflect on how seemingly minor decisions– like scheduling, resource distribution, or communication practices– can have larger material consequences on access and equity, How can your writing center actively translate ecological principles into justice-oriented practices? Reflect on how policies, consultation methods, and the physical space can promote diversity, equity, and well-being for clients, consultants, and the larger community. What is one small, intentional action you can take to make your writing center more ecological? Reflect on how this step can reverberate to the larger scale, recognizing that meaningful change begins with individual actions and doesn’t require solving everything at once.