Thanks for asking this question, Wendy, and thanks, colleagues, for
coming up with such useful answers already. Let's keep trying to
generate Canadian models we can point to.

Rob describes a real co-teaching model in Engineering at U of T where
both team members teach both sides of the subject. In other
undergraduate programs here, mainly based on writing centres (see
www.utoronto.ca/writing/centres.html) that have stretched the boundaries
of that term, we haven't yet reached that level of development, though
several of our units are moving in that direction. We do try to hire
people with some diversity of background to take part in our nascent WID
and co-teaching activities as well as in the individual instruction
that's still the core of writing-centre work. So we now have a few
people who started as physicists or anthropologists and then switched to
English or linguistics and so came into writing-centre work -- then went
out the other side into WID etc. along with the rest of us. Andy Payne,
for instance, with a Ph.D. in English, started as the writing expert in
the Faculty of Architecture, then ended up teaching courses in
architectural theory, and has now become undergraduate chair of that
faculty.

All our 14 or so writing centres are free-standing units, generally
reporting directly to a dean or principal. Thus only two of the 65 or so
writing instructors here are centrally appointed to departments, neither
of them English: one is appointed in Linguistics and coordinates three
ESL credit courses at the Scarborough campus, another lectures part-time
in Biology and also occasionally teaches non-credit courses in
scientific writing to graduate students. A dozen or so other people
combine part-time appointments in writing centres with part-time
appointments in English or other humanities departments.

One place where we do see physicists and geographers teaching writing is
among the huge Teaching Assistant cohort. Much of the undergraduate
teaching at U of T depends on TAs, in fact, and we are delighted at how
often we find (i.e., court, support, confer with, learn from, etc.) good
grad-student instructors in disciplines that are trying to integrate
more writing within their courses. When given the chance, these
exceptional teachers can help shape assignment prompts, present them
effectively to students, take students through various types and stages
of writing-to-learn as well as writing-to-succeed, and reinforce the
whole idea that writing is worth learning. Often they have derived their
ideas about writing from having had to learn and think about knowledge
production in their own disciplines, whether Political Science,
Geography, Engineering, or Pharmacology (to name specific instances).
Having come across such TAs, we try to draw them into writing centres as
TA instructors there too. (I can think of about a dozen such people over
the years who came from outside the traditional humanities programs.)
Then we can ask them not only to work with courses in disciplines
related to their own, but also to talk with other writing instructors
and give workshops on writing in their subject areas -- very valuable
insider views!

Alas, these TAs eventually graduate and move on. We've never captured a
physicist (much less a physician) to stay full-time in a writing
program. I hope they also take with them a disposition to integrate
writing instruction with their future teaching. I know that some of the
disciplinary faculty with whom we work most productively here have come
from Cornell or Berkeley or Wisconsin. They expect co-instruction as in
strong WID programs to be the norm when they arrive here -- so we try to
make it so.

Looking forward to more responses,
Margaret.

Wendy Strach wrote:

>Greetings all!
>
>I'm seeking information from you about the academic homes of faculty who
>teach writing and particularly who teach writing in the disciplines.
>We are wondering what proportion of people who are teaching writing come
>from disciplines other than English or Education.
>
>Could you please let me know if you have a unit/centre or courses taught by,
>say a physicist, who is teaching writing in physics?  I'm wondering about
>the academic backgrounds of people who are in those active programs in
>engineering and business at U of T and elsewhere; what about medical
>schools?
>
>SFU is still in the developmental stage of implementing the new
>W-requirement and we are looking at who should constitute the faculty who
>either assist others in their disciplines or otherwise teach
>discipline-specific writing courses.
>
>Any hints or links or numbers very welcome!  Many thanks!
>
>Wendy
>
>
>Wendy Strachan, Ph.D.
>Director, Centre for Writing-Intensive Learning
>Simon Fraser University
>Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6
>
>Telephone:  604-291-3122
>Fax: 604-268-6915
>Website: http://www.sfu.ca/cwil
>email: [log in to unmask]
>
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--
Margaret Procter, Ph.D.
University of Toronto Coordinator, Writing Support
15 King's College Circle, Toronto ON M5S 3H7
416 978-8109; FAX 416 971-2027

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http://www.utoronto.ca/writing

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