Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

English

First Advisor

Richard Marback

Abstract

As the field of rhetoric and composition studies grapples with problematic institutional paradigms militating against its growth, changes taking place in the field mean that opportunity is created for a more equitable, inclusive, and diversified composition classroom. Questions of diversity, equity and inclusion have led me to investigate the composition classroom to identify and decenter structural systems of white mainstream literacy and language practices as a way of encouraging and building on the prior literacy practices of not just minority students, but all categories of students. In my dissertation research, I propose the practice of ubuntu as a way of teaching and assessing students to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. Ubuntu loosely translates as “Humanity to others” or “I am because you are.” As a rhetorical practice, the adoption of ubuntu in the composition classroom will foster bonds of cooperation and respect for the literacy practices of all students, an action that will go a long way to help in the fight against racism and its systemic manifestations of white hegemonic practices, key among which is white mainstream literacy and languaging. Drawing on critical race theory, textual ethnography, participatory action research, counter storytelling, and translingualism, I argue that writing should be a community practice, one that recognizes the uniqueness of each individual student by remediating the long-held notion that standard edited American English is the only medium through which students’ writing can be assessed and improved.

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