Post #5: Lulu

I was really struck by Brice's ground rules, especially rule #4 (be polite). As we touched on in class last week, in my tutoring experience so far I have sometimes had difficulty balancing what I perceive to be polite behavior (lots of positive affirmation and praise for student work, giving critiques and suggestions as gently as possible) with being a helpful and direct tutor. I appreciated Brice's point that politeness varies among cultures and that using "deference politeness" over "solidarity politeness" can help tutors to avoid imposition. The idea of drawing out a quiet Alaska Native student by "answering reticence with reticence" makes sense, but I'm struggling to find a parallel for my own experiences in the contact zone. Is this as simple as taking a moment towards the beginning of a session to step back and let students "lead," or does it necessitate a deeper knowledge of the different cultures that we're encountering, as in the case of the new tutor training held at the RSS at U Alaska Fairbanks?

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 25, 2018 at 8:17 PM

    I also had trouble finding a parallel to my experiences in our writing center, and I wonder if it's in part because Brice herself is making a bit of a generalization here. It feels weird, flattening, to assume any Alaska Native student who isn't talkative is "reticent" - yes, that may be the case, and yes, that may repeatedly be the case, but isn't presuming that the silence of every Native student comes from a place of reticence as insensitive as not considering their cultural backgrounds at all? Yes, cultural backgrounds are critical to carefully consider when working with a student, but I think the trap becomes thinking that student is ONLY their cultural background rather than a living, breathing, three-dimensional individual. This seems a tricky balance to strike for sure - I don't mean to make it sound easy - and, like Lulu, I'm seeking some entry point into negotiating this tightrope we walk as tutors.

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