Collaborating in the Contact Zone: A Writing Center Struggles with Multiculturalism
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Date
2004
Authors
Sloan, Jay D.
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Description
Like many universities, Kent State University’s Stark campus has taken “embracing diversity” as one of its primary initiatives. According to our mission statement, we seek “to prepare students to think and act in a worldwide context of many races, cultures, and political systems.” This is particularly challenging at a regional campus like Stark. Unlike the very large, very diverse central Kent campus, less than 8% of Stark’s students are minorities. The majority of our students come from local, rural, largely monocultural communities. And for this reason some Stark instructors utilize “contact zone” pedagogies to engage students in multicultural thinking that lies beyond our students’ experiences.