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Award for writing faculty

From left: WCM-Q writing faculty Rodney X. Sharkey, Alan S. Weber and Krystyna Golkowska wrote a chapter for the book that won the 2017 Outstanding Book Award from the US-based National Council of Teachers of English.
From left: WCM-Q writing faculty Rodney X. Sharkey, Alan S. Weber and Krystyna Golkowska wrote a chapter for the book that won the 2017 Outstanding Book Award from the US-based National Council of Teachers of English.

WCM-Q professors share prestigious US national book award after outlining the challenges of writing pedagogy in the Middle East.

A chapter penned by the writing faculty of WCM-Q has appeared in a book that has won the 2017 Outstanding Book Award from the US-based National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

The chapter was authored by current WCM-Q professors of writing Alan S. Weber, Rodney X. Sharkey and Krystyna Golkowska, in partnership with former WCM-Q professors of writing Mary Ann Rishel, Autumn Watts, and Ian Miller. Their chapter appeared in a book on international writing practices entitled Transnational Writing Program Administration, edited by Dr. David S. Martins from the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.

The chapter describes challenges that the WCM-Q Writing Program faced in translating American models of writing pedagogy into the context of Arabian Gulf education in Education City, Qatar as well as within an overseas medical school, explained Dr. Alan Weber, associate professor of English at WCM-Q.

“Our chapter analyzed how our program was able to respond to cohorts of students trained in very different educational paradigms, such as the kuttab system,” Dr. Weber said. “In this form of traditional Gulf school, the instruction is often teacher- rather than student-centered and memorization of knowledge takes precedence.”

Dr. Weber added: “In the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) model of writing supported on the campus of Cornell University at Ithaca, writing instructors emphasize the process of writing as a means of building knowledge and clarifying thought. Thus, writing becomes a process of intellectual discovery, and assists in developing creative and innovative problem-solving abilities and fostering critical and analytical thinking skills which are central to a knowledge economy. Many of the insights detailed in the chapter relate to the implementation of the Writing Across the Curriculum model here in Qatar at WCM-Q.”

The award was announced at The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). The CCCC, which has more than 5,000 members and subscribers, forms part of the NCTE and supports and promotes the teaching and study of composition, rhetoric, and communication skills at college level, both in undergraduate and graduate programs. The National Council of Teachers of English, established in 1911 with 35,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, is the largest, oldest and arguably the most prestigious professional organization for English teachers in world.

Dr. Martins, the editor of the book, received the award on behalf of the authors at a ceremony held in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Martins is an associate professor of writing and writing director at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York. He also oversees the writing programs at RIT Dubai University, and is an authority in the field of transnational writing instruction and how American writing pedagogies can be adapted to new overseas contexts to best serve students.

Professor Krystyna Golkowska, WCM-Q associate professor of English, said: “The writing faculty at WCM-Q view their classes as opportunities to help WCM-Q students appreciate just how valuable liberal arts education is as a means for personal and professional development. Thus, we emphasize not only exposure to humanistic thought and building the culture of reading and writing but also self-reflection and intercultural competence. We are very gratified that our exploration of these themes in the chapter was able to contribute to Dr. Martins’ book winning the 2017 NCTE Outstanding Book Award.”