JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 17, Number 1, 1997 Page: 53
142 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"The Stranger" in Communication:
Race, Class, and Conflict in a Basic
Writing Class
XIN LIu GALE
In what ways does my Chinese background affect my teaching? I had never given
this question much thought until I taught Composition Fundamentals, a reme-
dial course for basic writers, last fall. My Chinese origin is not something I can
or intend to disguise and, in the past six years of teaching writing at different
institutions, my American students seem to have been willing to ignore the most
obvious racial differences between them and me. However, things came to a
surprising turn the day I entered the basic writing class. For the first time my
ethnicity was accentuated in the classroom, by one of the African-American
students who, seeing me entering the classroom and appearing behind the
platform, remarked in suspicion, "You're the teacher?"
I had yet to realize the full significance of this blunt questioning two weeks
later, when, at my invitation to comment on my ways of conducting this class,
confrontation occurred between the African-American and white students. Half
of the African-American students-five of them-voiced their dislike for the
class, including close reading and analysis of written texts, my emphasis on the
writing process, especially revising and editing, and in-class writing and group
conferences. Three of the six white students, about one third of the class
population, argued rather adamantly in defence of everything I had done. While
half of the class was caught in the heat of the argument, the other half sat watching
as onlookers, their faces expressionless and inscrutable. My ethnicity surfaced
again, as one of the African-American students observed, trying to be fair
perhaps, that she had learned a lot already despite the teacher being a Chinese
and another added that the teacher would have done a better job without the
"assistant teachers' help," referring to the white students. The atmosphere
became explosive, and the tension between the African-American and white
students, with me the teacher being the subject of controversy, alarmed me and
for the first time forced me to face the issues of race in the teaching of writing.
My first reaction to the African-American students' criticism was that it was
an indication of their racial prejudice, something that was irrelevant to my
teaching and their learning, something that I should ignore rather than address
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 17, Number 1, 1997, periodical, 1997; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28618/m1/57/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .