Educating Online Writing Instructors Using the Jungian Personality Types

While the field of composition studies has recognized that online writing instructors need professional development, less is known about what to educate teachers and administrators to do or how to do so. To better understand both who online writing instructors are and what they need, this study investigated to what extent the Jungian personality types might reveal what online writing instructors need and want in training and professional development. To research these questions, we developed a mixed-methods study using a nationwide survey of online instructor and administrator preferences and professional development needs, searching for potential patterns among participants; we requested that participants take and self-report data from the Jungian Typology Test (JTT), a variant of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Our findings indicated significantly high percentages of Introverted types, iNtuitive types, and iNtuitive-Feeling types compared with the general population. Further, we found that Introversion and Extraversion may make a difference between enjoying and disliking online writing instruction (OWI), being an iNtuitive-Thinker and an iNtuitive Feeler may lead to preferring different OWI teaching strategies, and that educating OWI teachers and WPAs by harnessing their Jungian personality preferences may help with developing targeted, practical professional development.