Carol Peterson Haviland, Robert Cedillo, Chloe de los Reyes, Magnus Gustafsson, Gerd Bräuer, Linda Bergmann:
Tutoring Across Borders
Over the past decade, many writing center directors have become involved in international discussions and exchanges, which have brought insight about cultural similarities and differences in teaching writing to all participants. However, very few tutors have participated in these exchanges, and our roundtable will speak to that gap by reporting on a pilot collaboration of US, German, and Swedish writing centers.
The six participants will report on their experiences in which two tutors from California State University, San Bernardino (California) spent three months during the spring of 2007 working at two European writing centers (the University of Education, Freiburg, Germany, and Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden). While there, the tutors engaged fully in their host centers’ programs, providing tutoring to students, consulting with faculty members, and participating in outreach projects.
The two tutors, the two host directors, the sponsoring director, and a US director who has worked with a number of international tutors and visiting writing center scholars will describe what they have learned about international placements. Of particular interest will be the tutors’ perspectives, which stress the importance of tutors’ understanding the educational experiences international students and tutors bring to new education settings and particularly to new ways of learning academic English. All participants will evaluate this pilot, engaging the audience participants in a discussion of ways it reflects the flexibility of writing center methodology and the ways in which it needs/can be adapted to optimize learning in specific environments. Roundtable discussion will also be geared towards finding ways to enlarge this pilot to include more tutors and more sites.