Decentering grammar and grading in academic writing instruction

In this podcast episode we talk to Sophia Brauner, a former student
of ours who is currently completing her graduate studies at Western
Washington University in the United States and who teaches academic
writing to undergraduate students. We talk about the notion of
academic writing as as a means of expression and communication of
ideas and how Sophia in her classes uses the creation of podcast
projects to teach students be more creative, flexible and willing
to take risks in their approach to writing. Sophia puts forth
strong and inspiring criticisms of language correctness and
standard grammar as criteria for evaluating student writing –
criticisms that are virtually unheard of in our German system. She
gives us wonderful insights into how the broader, de-centered
notions of what ‘writing’, ‘research’, and ‘knowledge’ can be in
her writing classes follow an anti-racist tradition of scholarship
and liberate students to find their own voices rather than
imitating others. Lastly, we talk about the ubiquitous problems of
grading and how Sophia uses ‘labor contracts’ to grade her
students’ work not in terms of ‘merit’ but purely in terms of
completion, which functions as another way to encourage creativity
and risk in learning instead of reading the teacher’s mind in
trying to get everything perfect.