Journal of English for Academic Purposes

Volume 65, September 2023, 101284

Demystifying academic promotional genre:A rhetorical move-step analysis of

Teaching Philosophy Statements (TPSs)
Yuanheng (Arthur) Wang

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Abstract

As a high-stakes academic promotional genre, teaching philosophy statements (TPSs) are important in academic
professionals’ career success and professional development in U.S. higher education. However, this genre remains
relatively overlooked in current EAP genre research. The study addresses this gap by investigating the rhetorical moves
and steps, including their frequency and sequence, in 100 TPSs written by U.S. university faculty members who wrote
their TPSs to apply for and eventually won prestigious university teaching awards. It also explores gatekeeper and
novice writer’s perceptions of the genre analysis results. Findings show that the TPSs are structured by two very
common moves: Construct teacher profile and Demonstrate teacher competence in the classroom, as well as three less
common moves and multiple very common, common, and less common steps. The TPSs are also cyclically sequenced
by the two very common moves. The gatekeeper and novice writer positively recognized the usefulness of the genre
analysis results in terms of representing the TPS genre, further highlighted the genre’s intertextual operation, and
eventually interpreted the results’ potential in informing EAP writing pedagogy. Future research and pedagogical
directions are discussed.

Introduction

In U.S. higher education, academics seeking faculty positions, teaching awards, teaching grants/fellowships, tenure and
promotion, or graduate school programs are typically required to write and submit their teaching philosophy
statements (TPSs) as part of their application materials (Kaplan, O'Neal, Meizlish, Carillo, & Kardia, 2008). As “a
systematic and critical rationale that focuses on the important components defining effective teaching and learning”
(Schönwetter, Sokal, Friesen, & Taylor, 2002, p. 84), TPS primarily serves promotional purposes as a promotional genre
(Bhatia, 1993). It allows writers to articulate and explain the “why, what, and how” of their teaching (Boye, 2012, p. 1)
and demonstrate to potential gatekeepers, such as members of various hiring, award review, or admissions committees,
why they are competent teachers deserving of employment, awards/recognition, or admission.
However, research that examines the textual features of TPS as a promotional genre (Bhatia, 1993) within English for
Academic Purposes (EAP) genre scholarship is very scarce. Researchers and practitioners (e.g., instructional specialists
working at university teaching/learning centers) from non-EAP fields such as teacher education and higher education
administration have compiled a plethora of practical guidelines to display different components typically seen in a TPS,
such as conceptualizations or philosophies of teaching/learning or teacher/learner, teaching/learning goals,
teacher/learner activities, and assessments, among others (e.g., Boye, 2012; Chism, 1998; Eierman, 2008; Goodyear &
Allchin, 1998; Kaplan, Meizlish, O'Neal, & Wright, 2008; Schönwetter et al., 2002, etc.) by drawing from their
understanding of the nature of TPS, experiences in conducting university faculty workshops and evaluating TPSs,
and/or surveys and interviews with stakeholders. However, these findings do not explicitly reveal what academic
writers do to unpack these components in actual writing and to subsequently meet genre expectations. Also, in contrast
with other occluded genres (e.g., grant proposal reviews or tenure/promotion reports, see Swales, 1996), TPS is not
strictly occluded because its sample texts can be easily identified and accessed nowadays online. However, TPS could
be a semi-occluded genre (Samraj & Monk, 2008) because its significance in the decision-making process (e.g., job or
award applications) may be opaque; its value may not be “as high as it should be,” with candidates and gatekeepers
holding “a wide variety of expectations and understandings of what that statement should include” (Eierman, 2008, p.
336).

Due to all the above issues, the TPS genre remains overlooked in current EAP writing research. Consequently, for EAP
writing instructors, TPS may be difficult to teach because of a lack of concrete, evidence-based pedagogical materials
(Boye, 2012; Kearns & Sullivan, 2011). Novice writers may struggle to identify the rhetorical features of such genre and
meet audience expectations, lacking exposure to the genre and informed pedagogical support (Boye, 2012; Ellis &
Griffin, 2000; Kearns & Sullivan, 2011; Schönwetter et al., 2002). Nonetheless, TPS remains a critical, high-stakes genre
that academics must master for their career development and success in the face of increasing institutional demands
and fierce job market competition (Hegarty, 2015).

Therefore, the current study aims to unveil the rhetorical features of 100 TPSs written by U.S. university faculty
members who were nominated for and eventually won prestigious university teaching awards. It contributes to the
body of EAP promotional genre research by (1) presenting a detailed rhetorical move-step framework of TPS and (2)
revealing the extent to which the framework can adequately describe the TPS genre and inform the teaching of the
genre as interpreted by stakeholders.

Section snippets

Research on teaching philosophy statement

Previous research on TPS has been conducted across disciplines or disciplinary fields such as teacher education,
management/business education, and higher education administration, among others (e.g., Bakker, Dubensky, Harvey,
& McDonough, 2019; Beatty, Leigh, & Lund Dean, 2009; Chism, 1998; Eierman, 2008; Goodyear & Allchin, 1998; Kaplan
et al., 2008; Schönwetter et al., 2002; Supasiraprapa & De Costa, 2017). Based on insights from a critical review by
Laundon, Cathart, and Greer (2020), it…

Methodology

The study was designed and conducted according to its three RQs. The current section describes and explains the
methodological procedures and considerations. A table that details step-by-step breakdowns of the study's
implementational process and procedures can also be found in Appendix A.…

(RQ1) rhetorical moves/steps in the 100 TPSs & their frequency

As illustrated in Table 2, a TPS may be structured using five moves, each comprising multiple steps. This section
addresses RQ1 by describing and exemplifying these moves and steps while commenting on their commonality.…

Discussion

The study revealed that the 100 faculty members who won prestigious teaching awards structured their TPS with two
very common moves: Move 1: Construct a professional profile and Move 3: Demonstrate teacher competence in the
classroom, as well as three less common moves: Move 2: Signal the structure of the text and/or propositional themes, Move
4: Demonstrate teacher competence outside the classroom, and Move 5: Express gratitude.

In addition, these faculty members utilized a variety of very…

Conclusion

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first large-scale EAP genre study to identify the rhetorical features of TPS by
employing a step-driven rhetorical move analysis (RQs 1 & 2) and investigating how stakeholders perceived the
findings of the genre analysis (RQ 3). Insofar as TPS is a relatively understudied academic promotional genre in EAP
genre research but remains key to the career success of academics in a promotion culture (Wernick, 1991), the findings
of the study contribute to the…

CRediT author statement

Yuanheng Wang: Conceptualization; Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal Analysis; Investigation; Data
Curation; Writing – Original Draft; Writing – Review & Editing; Visualization; Project administration.…

Statement of competing interests

No.…

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Xiaofei Lu for his compelling mentoring, as well as Minjin Kim, Xixin Qiu, and Genggeng
Zhang, all from The Pennsylvania State University, for their insightful input at different stages of the study. I also would
like to thank Dr. Hansun Waring (Teachers College, Columbia University), who introduced me to the world of
“promotional genre”. My thanks also go to the editor and two reviewers, whose constructive feedback has improved
and sharpened my article in various ways …

Yuanheng (Arthur) Wang is a doctoral candidate in Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University. His
research interests include corpus-based genre research and analysis, second language (L2) writing and writing
pedagogy, and L2 writing teacher education. His recent work has appeared in Journal of English for Academic Purposes.…

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Yuanheng (Arthur) Wang is a doctoral candidate in Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests
include corpus-based genre research and analysis, second language (L2) writing and writing pedagogy, and L2 writing teacher
education. His recent work has appeared in Journal of English for Academic Purposes.

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