Summary
Todd Ruecker is an associate professor of English and director of core writing at the University of Nevada, Reno. In addition to working with linguistically and culturally diverse students at multiple universities in the U.S., he has taught EFL in workplaces and K-12 schools in the Czech Republic and Chile and is trilingual in English, Spanish and Czech.
His research is primarily focused on investigating issues surrounding the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity of education worldwide and working to transform educational institutions and writing classrooms into more welcoming spaces for all students. He has researched and written about retention and student success, the politics of assessment, writing program placement, immigrant education in rural schools, linguistically diverse peer review, the development of new teaching practices and literacy experiences across the curriculum and at different institutions.
He has published articles in journals such as College Composition and Communication, Composition Studies, Computers and Composition, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, TESOL Quarterly, and Writing Program Administration. He has published several books, with the most recent being Navigating Challenges in Qualitative Educational Research: Research, Interrupted, published in 2019 and co-edited with Vanessa Svihla.
Research interests
- Retention and student success
- Peer review and collaboration
- Writing theory and pedagogy
- Linguistically diverse students
- Assessment and placement
- Writing program administration
Recent publications
Books
- Ruecker, T. & Svihla, V. (Eds.) (2019). Navigating challenges in qualitative education research: Research, interrupted. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Ruecker, T. & Crusan, D. (Eds.) (2018). The politics of English second language writing assessment in global contexts. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Ruecker, T., Shepherd, D., Estrem, H., & Brunk-Chavez, B. (Eds.) (2017). Retention, persistence, and writing programs. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
- Ortmeier-Hooper, C. & Ruecker, T. (Eds.) (2017). Linguistically diverse immigrant and resident writers: Transitions from high school to college. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Ruecker, T. (2015). Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos writing in high school and college. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
Articles
- Ruecker, T., Frazier, S., Tseptsura, M. (2018). “Language difference can be an asset”: Exploring the experiences of nonnative English speaking teachers of writing. College Composition and Communication, 69(4), 612-41.
- Mangelsdorf, K. & Ruecker, T. (2018). Peer reviews and graduate writers: engagements with language and disciplinary differences while responding to writing. Journal of Response to Writing, 4(1), 4-33.
- Ruecker, T. & Ives, L. (2015). “White native English speakers needed”: The construction of privilege in online English language teaching recruitment spaces. TESOL Quarterly, 49(4), 733-756.
- Ruecker, T., Chamcharatsri, B., & Saengngoen, J. (2015). Teacher perceptions of the impact of the Common Core assessments on linguistically diverse high school students. Journal of Writing Assessment, 8(1).
- Ruecker, T. (2014). Here they do this, over there they do that: Latinas/os writing across institutions. College Composition and Communication, 66(1), 91-119.
Chapters
- Ruecker, T. (2019). Representation and emotion: Researching in the rural U.S. in a politically polarized time. In T. Ruecker & V. Svihla (Eds.) Navigating challenges in qualitative education research: Research, interrupted (pp. xx-xx). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Crusan, D. & Ruecker, T. (2019). Standardized testing pressures and the temptation of the five-paragraph essay. In N.A. Caplan & A.M. Johns (Eds.) Teaching purposeful writing: Practices beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay (pp. xx-xx). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
- Ruecker, T. (2017). Publishing as an early career L2 writing scholar. In P.K. Matsuda, S. E. Snyder, & K. D. O’Meara (Eds.) Professionalizing second language writing (pp. 66-79). West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press.
- Ruecker, T. (2017). Stranger in a strange land: Conducting qualitative research across borders. For the collection. In S.A. Mirhosseini (Ed.) Reflections on qualitative research in language and literacy education (pp. 45-58). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
- Ruecker, T. (2016). “I don’t want to be special:” English language learners in rural and small town high schools.” In. C. Ortmeier-Hooper & T. Ruecker (Eds.) Linguistically diverse immigrant and resident writers: Transitions from high school to college (pp. 82-94). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Simpson, S., Ruecker, T., Carrejo, D., Flores, B., & Gonzalez, H. (2016). Leveraging development grants to create graduate writing support at three Hispanic-Serving Institutions. In S. Simpson, M. Cox, N. Caplan, & T. Phillips (Eds.) Graduate writing support: Research, pedagogy, and program design (pp. 171-91). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
- Ruecker, T. & Brunk-Chavez, B. (2016). Digital writing spaces across institutions on the U.S.-Mexico border. In J. P. Purdy & D. N. DeVoss (Eds.) Making space: Writing instruction, infrastructure, and multiliteracies (digital publication). Ann Arbor, MI: Digital Rhetoric Collaborative/UM/Sweetland Press.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Texas at El Paso, 2012
- M.A., Truman State University, 2005
- B.A., Truman State University, 2003