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.