Writing Center as Global Pedagogy

The writing center is a common writing support service in North America with unique

historical and theoretical underpinnings (Boquet, 1999; Bruffee, 1984; North, 1984). In the last

couple of decades, it has truly become a global pedagogy, being implemented in around 65

countries worldwide (e.g., Archer, 2007; Bräuer, 2002; Tan, 2011). Although writing centers

have been well received by international scholars, more studies are needed to discuss the

economic and political imperatives of establishing writing centers in respective contexts and

possible impacts on different student populations as a result. To address this issue, this multilayered

case study explores how the educational philosophy, pedagogical rationale and concepts

of the global writing pedagogy are interpreted by administrators and enacted in pedagogical

practice at Maple Leaves University (MLU)1, an internationalizing university in Japan. To

examine the language planning stage, data were collected from interviews with five

administrators and relevant university documents. For pedagogical practices, primary data

included audio-recordings and student interviews from four tutor-tutee dyads concerning three

types of writing tutorials: (a) Japanese students seeking consultation on Japanese writing, (b)

Japanese students seeking consultation on English writing, and (c) international students seeking

consultation on Japanese writing.