Experiences in whiteness: Entering the academic discourse community

This critical ethnographic case study describes how two black first-year undergraduate students at a predominantly white midwestern university, who were deemed basic writers by their ACT English-section scores, applied their own literacies and discourses in a new setting. It also describes how the students used the academic discourse they encountered at their chosen university. The one-year study was conducted by a white researcher who also was the students' teacher for their first-semester basic-writing course, and their tutor for their second-semester Rhetoric course. Data included transcripts and observations from the tutorials, interviews with the students and their white Rhetoric teacher, and documents such as written assignments and the teachers' comments. Research questions focused on specifics like the students' skills, perceptions of literacy and race, and the tutor's perceptions of pedagogy. The critical reflective analysis incorporated a look at whether the two students had to leave their own world views behind and a look at how whiteness was a reality in the students' university experiences and in the teaching and tutoring they received. Ultimately the study brought together scholarship about basic writing, composition, whiteness, tutoring, and academic discourse communities. The study revealed that, although the two students differed in their writing, speaking, and critical-thinking skills, their approaches to school work and their willingness to adapt to the ways of the university influenced the students' learning and the nature of their tutorials as much as their skills did. The results suggest a need for transition courses to aid entering students identified as underprepared, reflection to identify assumptions that might be affecting teaching and tutoring, recognition of and attention to home discourses and the extra burdens black students bear, and the inclusion of other forms of discourse in the academy.