Hi Wendy,
At NSCAD University, I have a home base in the Division of Historical and
Critical Studies, along with art historians, film historians and art
education specialists. My educational background is originally literature.
The only other teachers of English courses are Kenna (literature background)
and part-time teachers who have a literature or creative writing background.
We have tried to consider other people to teach who might have a strong
background in visual arts and writing about the visual arts, but apart from
one person who was wonderful and had a background in the education
department of the Art Gallery of Ontario, we have not had any success.
Primarily, the problem is that the candidates may be able to write well but
they have never been asked to reflect much on why or how they do that, much
less figure out how to teach writing to those who may not write well. The
tendency seems to be to rely on "instinct" (for want of a better word to
describe the prescriptive approach) or text books such as the "prose models"
varieties which don't necessarily translate into sound pedagogy, especially
for students who consider themselves visual learners and whose own
"instincts" didn't respond to high school English teachers' methods. If
anyone has suggestions on how to recruit part-time teachers who have
expertise in a specialized discipline and in writing pedagogy, do share! I
feel as though we are trying to buy the golden goose with a copper penny.
And we have 12 sections of the course to staff next year.
Jane Milton
-----Original Message-----
From: CASLL/Inkshed [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Wendy Strach
Sent: October 19, 2004 5:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: academic homes of writing instructors
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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