Literacy in Composition Studies May 2018 RSS Open Access

“To Whom Do We Have Students Write?”: Exploring Rhetorical Agency and Translanguaging in an Indonesian Graduate Writing Classroom

Amber Engelson Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Abstract

In keeping with the recent global turn in literacy and composition studies, this article explores rhetorical agency in an English-medium Indonesian PhD program. Drawing from the critical reflective lens teacher ethnography allows, the author highlights how graduate students at this Indonesian, yet international site negotiated both textually and extra-textually with the critical pedagogy she developed, while she also questions some of her initial assumptions concerning genre, audience, and rhetorical agency. Overall, the data presented here indicates that rather than focusing solely on textual form as a site of critical agency, teachers and scholars should also take into consideration the ways writers appropriate and circulate knowledge to the diverse audiences in their lives, across multiple genres and languages—and as time unfolds. Broadening the lens to account for such translingual agency might also benefit U.S.-based graduate writing pedagogies, the author ultimately suggests.

Journal
Literacy in Composition Studies
Published
2018-05-01
DOI
10.21623/1.6.1.3
CompPile
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
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    Graduate Students, Professionals, Intellectuals
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     ↗
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    The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Comp…
    College Composition and Communication
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
  96. ---.Writing in the Devil’s Tongue: A History of English Composition in China.Carbondale: Southern Illinois …
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