Productive Differences

Complexity and Complicity in Composition Courses

Context

According to the Brookings institute, the number of foreign students who received F-1 visas--visas granted for study at an American college or university--rose from 110,000 in 2001 to 524,000 in 2012.At Miami University, international student enrollment has increased from 298 in 2005 to 1,813 in 2014.

What’s Composition got to do with it?

What is the issue?

The Anonymous Letter

Myths and Misperceptions of Linguistic and Cultural Differences

1. There is an “International student” problem2. They lack “Common courtesy”3. They won’t let me “Do my job”4. They will ruin everything

How do we respond?

Counter-Narratives

We have an International Student problem

Myth 1

“the level of disengagement the international students display during class is downright disrespectful to the point of being infuriating”

We are in the midst of a demographic shift—and it’s not the first.

“disregard for common courtesy to the class as a whole is a major distraction for students”

Myth 2

Don’t assume that ways of performing in class are “common courtesy.”

Myth 3

“There is a point where I must make a decision as to who deserves more of my time — those students who put in the time and effort, those who come to class prepared, those who are engaged or those who I must baby every step of the way. I am here to do my job of helping students who want to do their job. I am not here to coax and prod along the students who are not capable of doing their job.”

Teachers “are often needs assessors first and foremost, then designers and implementers of specialized curricula in response to identified needs” --Belcher, 2006

Myth 4

“Besides being a burden upon themselves and upon the educators at this institution, one must also consider the implications that significant percentages of failing or low-performing students have on the general class population.”

Myth 4 cont.“When one portion of the class sets the bar low, the rest of the class conforms to that standard. It is an uphill battle to raise the bar after it has been lowered. This is a sad fact of education that instructors have been fighting against for ages. Miami prides itself on providing a top-notch education to every student. We cannot have one sector of the student population negatively affect other sectors of our student population.”

Reflection.

Ask the right questions of ourselves.

Make the implicit explicit.

Problematic?

Make the implicit explicit and find ways to value difference.

Researching Academic Misalignments

“The principle of instructional alignment reminds us not to punish students for what teachers do not teach or for what cannot be learned even with the best intentions of both teachers and students”

Matsuda, Paul Kei. "Let's Face It: Language Issues And The Writing Program Administrator." WPA: Writing Program Administration - Journal Of The Council Of Writing Program Administrators 36.1 (2012): 141-163. Education Research Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Research Goals

Develop strategies to remove barriers to engagement with input from international

students.

Interview Results

• “They treat every students equally, but the students themselves are not the same, essentially. They are from different cultural backgrounds, so they need to be treated differently.”

• “Why are you here?” “What is English class to you?”

• “What keeps the student from talking in class? What holds her back? Uh, what is the student afraid of?”

Conclusions

• Student identities are complex• Instructors and institutions are complicit in the

barriers to engagement• Instructors are needs assessors who need

proper training• Making space for contributions of differences

is both the instructor’s and the student’s job.

Takeaway

“When the population for whom instruction is designed changes, the whole system often needs to be re-envisioned.”

Preto-Bay, Ana Maria, and Kristine Hansen. "Preparing For The Tipping Point: Designing Writing Programs To Meet The Needs Of The Changing Population." WPA: Writing Program Administration - Journal Of The Council Of Writing Program Administrators 30.1/2 (2006): 37-57. Education Research Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Thank you.

Any questions?