First Year Composition: The Effects of Race and Gender on Graduate Teaching Assistants

Abstract

Based on current literature there is a lack of discussion surrounding the identity of English Graduate Teaching Assistants and how embodied experiences influence teaching approaches throughout a First Year Composition course. Drawing on six interviews of doctoral GTAs, the results of this study demonstrate that previous experiences, classroom curriculum, and the notion of an ideal instructor all play a significant role in how GTAs value race and gender within spaces of a FYC classroom. Discussions about the experiences for this particular group of instructors can lead to discourse surrounding more topics and issues GTAs endure as a student and instructor. This research presented demonstrates the ways GTAs may embrace or distance themselves from their identity as a writing instructor and illustrates GTAs referring to their pedagogy education within other spaces outside of a writing classroom, and how their personal experience has a significant influence toward certain teaching approaches. Based on the research conducted English departments should consider the demographic of their GTA instructors and the curriculum that is being asked for GTAs to teach and the impact those two aspects have toward teaching approaches. By making the identities of GTAs visible, there is a possibility of providing GTAs with resources about dealing with their identity and how to manage their embodied experience while facilitating a FYC classroom.