Oppression

This weeks’ readings had me in a big of a fuss. I found them to be contradictory to what North stated as “The tutor should focus on the tutee as a writer and not the actual text itself.” Yet, I feel in this weeks reading the focus was on oppression and the avoidance of it. When is it the writers job to make the tutor feel comfortable. I do not feel the writer should conform their beliefs to appease the tutor. Nor do I feel the tutor should insist on long bouts of dialog in order to change the mind of the tutee. I believe that they are entitled to feel and believe as they desire. Yes, it is okay to help enlighten the tutee, but when does it cross the line of imposing on the part of the tutor? When does it become a situation where personal boundaries are being crossed in the writing center?

I agree where the article stated there should be intentional diversity in the writing center. That not all scenarios can be accomplished in mock training. By encouraging diversity amongst the tutors in the center, they deal with real life differences and issues that might occur. Their exposure to multiple cultures are not foreign and the introduction of another whose culture is different is met with less surprise and more competence and understanding. What we do not understand something it often makes us uncomfortable. When we understand a situation better, we are better able to adapt to changes that might occur.

Students whose second language is English also face misunderstandings in the writing center. I observed 3 sessions this week in the writing center this week where three students from WENZOU – Kean university in china, were being tutored. The differences in each session going on simultaneously were totally different and all based on the tutor and their experiences and comfort level with those of different backgrounds. I will explain it briefly below:

One tutor seemed to not be uncomfortable with the student but was very formal. Asked the student questions, and when the student did not understand, he posed questions in as simple forms as he could without me, the on looker, getting a sense of frustration. While he basically ran the session, I didn’t feel he took over the session. He asked questions and waited for the client to be an active participant. He also took his time to explain details.

The second tutor was what I refer to as the “TUTOR TYRANT”. She was loud, she was controlling and totally took over the tutoring session. She barely received input from the client and I felt as if she was imposing all her beliefs on this student because of the language barrier. I believe this because I watched this tutor with a native English speaker and her mode of tutoring was totally different and more relaxed. I felt this session was hostile in some ways. I am sure the client did not notice it as such and just accepted it as such.

The third tutor had the perfect medium. She used collaborative dialog and actually asked questions of the client about herself and get a sort of understanding about where she was from. She took this client to the third space. She allowed the client to use what she knew to help her form this paper. I felt her whole session moved at this amazing pace that I’d expect at a regular session of an English speaker with no language barrier. She was the epitome of what a tutor should be.