Accountability Rhetoric in Language Policies: First Year Composition Teachers and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies

Abstract

This paper examines how Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) at Pacific Conference (Pac-12) universities are trained to teach First-Year Composition (FYC) and introductory writing skills that meet the learning needs of diverse student populations. It also analyzes how the online institution's rhetoric and English department policies fail to address the accountability of teachers for culturally sustaining pedagogy and curricula that include students' linguistic rights. The project presents two different analyses to confront the urgency of training GTAs in antiracist pedagogy and curriculum before they teach an FYC or introductory writing course. It also aims to restructure education policies to support diversity and inclusion classroom practices and the linguistic rights of students of color. The primary findings of the analyses are as follows: 1) Most FYC and introductory writing courses are taught by graduate students, 2) Nationally, most GTAs receive no training in teaching students of color. However, at Pac-12 institutions, GTAs receive formal or informal training on how to teach writing skills across racial differences, identify alternative grading assessments, conduct regular self-assessments utilized to complete a yearly report on their teaching strengths and weaknesses, and receive department evaluations on their classroom practices, 3) The University of Arizona and Arizona State University, the only Hispanic Serving Institutes (HSIs) in the conference, receive numerous grievances for racial discrimination and injustices on their campuses, 4) In recent years, Pac-12 institutions have made diversity and inclusion the focus of current initiatives, 5) There is enough evidence to support scholarly arguments (e.g., April Baker-Bell, Asao Inoue, Vershawn Young, Stacey Perryman-Clark) for students' language rights and institutional policy reform reflecting the needs of marginalized students.