Transculturation

The Transculturation in Introductory Composition research team seeks to increase undergraduate students’ intercultural competence by designing and implementing first-year writing courses that encourage meaningful intercultural interaction among international and domestic students.

Our innovative models  for first-year writing offer robust intercultural competence interventions to support students’ transitions to higher education and promote an asset-based view of students’ cultural wealth.

We evaluate the effectiveness of this approach using mixed-methods research. With the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale Short Form instrument, and analysis of writing, we gain insight into students’ intercultural competence development and their funds of knowledge. What we learn helps us modify our curricular interventions to enhance the linked course model and share what we learn for other classroom and extra-curricular contexts.

Our current work is supported by the University of Massachusetts — Boston English Department and the University of Strathclyde Institute of Education.

Our previous work at Purdue University was supported by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment, and Research, and the Department of English at Purdue University.