Curriculum and Pedagogy of Transformation: How to Improve EAL Students’ Places and Roles at Simon Fraser University

Abstract

Traditionally, university students are deemed to be the people who have to take most of the responsibilities for their academic and lived experiences. Teachers and the university set a stage for the students to perform, yet it is the performers’ motivation and competency that determines
the quality of their performance and experiences. Even though universities in Canada have sought to provide a variety of resources and supports, this perception is still deeply rooted in the mind of the people who are involved in the operation of higher educaton, especially the students themselves. This ideology is manifested to the greatest extent in the case of international students who speak English as an additional language (EAL) because not only do they experience difficulty in accessing their host community of practice, but also undergo tremendous stress and disappointment as they interpret their places and roles in EAL context to be subordinate. EAL students’ low self-efficacy and the institution’s denial of funds of knowledge (e.g. writing skills in L1) often cause them to reconstruct subordinate identities which require external supports and internal transformation to alter the status-quo. This paper examines
ways to promote both the external supports, from the institution and its members in authority, and internal transformations that can occur within the EAL students themselves based on the supports given.