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Christine, Thanks for your reply. (I haven't got the message from Paula but I'll see her tomorrow.) You wrote, >Being >intellectually raised in Canada I appreciate the cultural resistance to >things American on the list and in writing programs etc., and think it can >be very productive, but being pedagogically trained in the States I also >have real sympathies with composition as it is practiced here. Sometimes, >however, I think there are unecessary tensions, or that the "we're not like >those Americans" attitude veils various intrinsically Canadian >issues/challenges. I agree. Here's a familiar story that I tell people when they ask about my move to the US to study rhet/comp. At my Canadian university, when I asked why we don't do more for the ESL learners in first year writing, the answer was, "we do offer non-credit remedial courses..." and I said, well, what about offering tutoring by graduate students, the answer was "well, we can teach them grammar principles but they have to learn how to write on their own," and when I said that in the US they help ESL students by giving them courses for credit and tutoring them, the reply was, "well, you know, that's the way they do it in America" (the person's tone says to me: "... and we wouldn't like to be like them, you know, because we don't give in to such pressures") When I asked, can I do anything to study this kind of thing here, to help people this way? the answer was, "Go to Ohio State." I think that was partly an admission that they couldn't expand my expertise in that area, and partly closing the door to me, saying "we won't let you mess with our system here." Now I'm taking a graduate level English course (jointly offered by Education) specifically to study the theory and practice of teaching college-level ESL composition classes. It's probably similar at your institution--At OSU they have 3 levels of freshman courses for credit for ESL learners to prepare them for English 110, the composition course for everyone. And of course they have excellent tutoring services here. I am amazed by what my ESL students in English 110 can do because of the way they've been helped along. I definitely think there is something in that for Canadian Universities to learn from-- though not all Canadian universities are as unaccommodating as mine seemed to be. You wrote: >Sadly though, I often feel like an >outsider--a traitor almost. Why is that? If we were studying in Britian or >France, would things be different? I thought the point of going abroad for >an education was to bring different ideas back home, but my experience seems >to have severed me from my Canadian roots. I don't feel quite welcome >sometimes, and other times I'm not sure that I have that much to offer >teaching rhetoric and/or composition in institutional contexts that may be >radically different from the ones I've taught in for the last seven years, >and almost hostile to the cultural contexts of my graduate education. I'll >even go so far as to say that I'm not sure if my academic accomplishments >and credentials would be fully recognized by Canadian institutions. Why is >that? A pointed queery, I know, but one I think worth making. I don't feel quite as severed as that, but perhaps because I just started my PhD here in fall of 98. I still feel optimistic about coming back to Canada to work in writing & rhetoric at some university, perhaps even in an English department. But hey-- that could be all naivety. I do think that it might take a lot of readjustment to go back to a Canadian context after being immersed in the American one for years. Thanks for your thoughtful reply!!! sorry for my 10pt default font! Tania