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Contents
My First Major Mistake as a Writing Instructor
Conclusion
One of the participants named Karen from Brewer’s Conceptions of Literacy does not want to make academic writing “dull and boring” (55). She is not happy with the way some professors make writing dull and boring. Similarly, as an international graduate teaching assistant, I urge my fellow first-year writing instructors to be themselves in writing and teaching. I urge them to use their personal voice and claim their own space. It is in auto-ethnography that the eastwestnorthsouth will be able to understand one another’s pedagogical concerns as writing instructors. I request that U.S. rhetoric and composition scholars give international graduate teaching assistants of color from the global south an opportunity to narrate their struggles in established journals. Please do not laugh at us because we cannot write and speak English like you. Appreciate our efforts. Do not expect us to appreciate yours without you appreciating ours. If IGTAs find a bigger platform to raise their pedagogical and rhetorical concerns, mainstream U.S rhetoric and composition professors will be able to understand what they might want to do to make graduate schools of nonSTEM fields a place of diversity, inclusivity, and equity.