Re: wc's, faculty referral, student resposibility

[Eric Crump <wleric@showme.missouri.edu>]

Deb & Twila,

I'm sure there were probably nuances to Christina's talk not capturable in
a quick summary, but I'm wary of her suggestion that we embrace the
'inherent hierarchy' in tutor-tutee relationships. That claim is, in its
short form anyway, an apparent concession to academic traditions that
assign and enforce authority without much regard for knowledge and quality
but by credential instead.

Maybe it would be helpful to consider two different kinds of hierarchy: of
knowledge and of authority. 

It seems to me Christina might have been talking about the former, which
assumes that tutors have more experience and training in writing and
writing instruction and therefore are superior to most tutees *in the
context of the writing center.*

The latter, hierarchy of authority, is a bit of a problem. I'd hate to see
one (knowledge) get conflated with the other (athority) because in that
case the writing center isn't much better as a venue for productive
relationships than the classroom, which tends *not* to be a venue for
productive relationships. Teachers, by institutional mandate, have full
claim to superiority in knowledge and authority, quite aside from the
actual relationship between actual people in the actual room.

Even teased apart like that, I'd still be mighty wary of accepting
'inherent' hierarchies of any kind. Strikes me as verging on rationalizing
conventional assignments of power, no matter how you cut it. And it seems
to gloss over the richly various *number* of hierarchies present in any
complex set of human relations. Institutionalized hierarchies often work
like blinders, preventing us from seeing quality wherever it resides since
we think it only legitimately resides where we expect it. 

In other words, ascribing to an inherent hierarchy of knowledge in the
writing center might make us miss the cases (the *many* cases) where
students who come for help can offer it as well, since they bring with
them knowledge that tutors perhaps do not have--about their subjects and
about writing. 

Expertise can be a trap.

--Eric Crump