SUSANA FINQUELIEVICH∗ ALEJANDRO PRINCE∗∗
Total 1.460.778 Fuente: CIIE Programa de Mejoramiento del Sistema de
4. Conclusiones generales
Something unexpected and totally fresh emerged at the Writing Center during
booking system, students either called the receptionists or went to the Writing Center
to book appointments in person. They were assigned by the Writing Department to an
instructor for their first appointments. Students then continued to work with the same
instructor for their following appointments if they were not dissatisfied with their
instructor. In my case, sometimes when my students were not very happy with their
pairing with me at the beginning, after they had been tutored by me, many of them
changed their perceptions and followed up with me regularly. With the new online
booking system, from the very first appointment students have total freedom to book
their meetings with any instructor at the Writing Center that they would like to work
with by simply clicking on the instructor’s name displayed on the booking website
page. It is conspicuous that among other Canadian or English names, my name is the
only noticeable Chinese name, which makes my race salient to all students who did
not know me before. As well, the information of every instructor’s available time slots, whether their appointments are booked, when they are booked, and by whom,
is manifested clearly to every instructor at the Writing Center. Once the instructor’s appointment is booked, the color of the box of their available time slot will be
changed to blue while the vacancies remain blank.
When I got to know how the new online booking system would actually work, I
spoke to my colleague before the booking system was in formal operation. I
protested, “Students will not come to visit me when they see my Chinese name.” My colleague agreed that there would be discrimination and replied, “I cannot
understand why some Chinese students said to me, ‘We’re Chinese, so we don’t want a Chinese teacher.’ You have excellent linguistic skills and a lot to offer them.”
No Appointments: “It is so Weird to See a Chinese Name among All other Names.”
My worries soon turned into reality. During the first week of the new term, my
office hours were on Monday. After the new online booking system was in operation
during the first week, it turned out that I was the only one out of eight instructors
working on Monday who did not have any appointments.
During the second week, I was the only instructor among all instructors (39 in
total) at the Writing Center who did not have any appointments that week while all
other instructors were fully booked. A Chinese international student told me honestly
at the end of the term, “It is so weird to see a Chinese name among all other names.” I was like a plague that every student was trying deliberately and desperately to
escape, or a dangerous monster that no one dared to approach. I was thinking about
conducting an interesting experiment—changing my Chinese name into a White
Canadian one. The result could be quite interesting, I thought.
At the end of second week, I uploaded my biography to the new booking system
as a response to the call of the Writing Center to help students take better advantage
of the new system with the help of the information of each writing instructor. Several
days after my biography was uploaded, I did not have a single appointment still. It
seemed that whether I posted my biography or not did not make much difference to
Late Appointments: “Your Appointment was the Only one Vacant.”
Finally, the situation was beginning to change. Students started to book me. My
office hours were extended to Monday and Wednesday. Although I still had some
vacant appointments as compared with my native speaking Canadian colleagues who
were almost fully booked, students began to book me gradually. Like the
appointments of other instructors, my appointments started to be fully booked, even
by students whom I had never met before.
My supervisor, who had hired me, met me one day. He asked, “How about the
new online booking system?” I answered, “I am fully booked this week.” “Fully
booked?” He looked surprised, but happy, “I worried students would not come to
visit you because of your name.” “Honestly speaking, I did not have any student at the beginning of the term. Hopefully, students will not have that name
discrimination.” I answered.
However, I noticed that although my appointments were filled up, they were
always booked at the last minute. That means students only booked my appointments
when there were no other instructors’ appointments available that week. The students
did not book me until one day or half of a day before the scheduled appointment. I
seemed to be the last desired teacher in students’ eyes. I observed that I was always the last instructor whose appointments were booked at the Writing Center after all
other instructors’ appointments were fully booked over one week or a couple of days ago. Although my position seemed to go upward as the term continued, changing
the last vacant appointments on the specific day when I worked, my appointments
were still the last ones to be filled up by the students who had not met me or known
me before.
Early Appointments: “My Instructor is Unavailable Today.”
One week I found that all my appointments were fully booked over one week
previously by students whom I had never met before when half of my native
Canadian colleagues’ appointments were still vacant. It seemed that I had become popular all of a sudden. However, students’ explanations for why they booked me relatively far in advance revealed that I was not in fact so sought after as I appeared
to be. A Canadian-born student told me that her instructor was unavailable that day.
She viewed my biography and thought it matched her educational background. “So I think MAYBE you can help.” Another White student said that only my time suited her availability. She also viewed my biography and was informed that I had worked
with students from various disciplines. “There is no point making an appointment
with someone whose background does not match mine.” A Chinese international
student told me that she first visited a Canadian instructor at the Writing Center, but
the instructor said he could not understand her essay. “He said I should find a
Chinese instructor, so I come to you.” Although the booking system was different from the former booking system, my status did not change in essence. In reality,
these students who had booked me considerably in advance had already visited
several other instructors before they came to visit me. It was obvious that I was not
straw, the substitute for other unavailable instructors.
However, there were some different voices. One Black international student
booked me after having visited several White native English-speaking writing
instructors. She told me at the beginning of our tutorial, “I thought you would be easier to work with.” She also came back to revisit me. This sentiment was shared by several other Chinese students who started booking me and revisited me after having
visited some other native English-speaking instructors. A first-year Chinese student
said to me, “A Chinese teacher is easier to communicate with (in Chinese).” He said
that he had been in high school and university for many years, but no other teachers
had pointed out to him those writing skills and strategies he thought to be very
helpful. “I will come to visit you frequently from now on.” Another Chinese student
also told me, “A Chinese instructor is more useful to me.” I laughed. “Because I can
speak Chinese with you?” “No. Because you can tell me many useful writing
strategies.” It can be seen that my image as a non-White, non-native writing
instructor, on the one hand, had excluded me totally from many of my students’ selection lists of their potential and ideal instructors; on the other hand, this open
information released on line about my race maybe also made me become a
prospective refuge, a hopeful alternative, and a potential source of support for
marginalized, racialized, and disenfranchised students. As a result, the great majority
of students who chose to visit me and revisit me at Site 2 were non-White. Also,
there were more ESL than native-born students, more recent immigrant students than
my tutee cohort. I also discovered that students who did not enjoy stable statuses
such as visa students and new immigrants to Canadian society also visited me. I
wondered whether visible minorities preferred visiting me because of our shared
marginalized racial, ethnic, and social positions.
Full Appointments: “I am not Sure whether I’ll be Able to Book you Next Week.”
As the academic year proceeded and while the new online booking system was
in full swing, I was no longer the last instructor whose appointments were booked as
students’ last resort. At many times, my appointments were filled up over ten days or two weeks ago while nearly half of my other native English-speaking colleagues’
appointments were still open. Students began to complain, “I could not book you last
week since you were fully booked” or “I am going to book you as soon as I’m back, but I am not sure whether I’ll be able to book you next week.” My appointments began to be filled up at a much earlier time for several consecutive weeks. I checked
the names of the students who booked me at an early time and found they were
generally my returning students. These returning students fell into two categories.
They were either the students who had already recognized my teaching effectiveness
since they visited me in the new booking system, or my former students who visited
me one term or one year ago before the new system was in operation.
Then a third category emerged. I was attracting students who had got to know
my teaching style and abilities indirectly through a workshop that I gave in the
as she was a member of my audience in my writing workshop last term. She did not
visit me at the Writing Center before, but she told me, “I have attended your
workshop, so I think I know you well.” Unlike other students who booked one
appointment each time, she booked two appointments with me in two consecutive
weeks at one stroke even before her first visit. It seems when students booked me
ahead of time, they were familiar with me either as my returning students or they
thought that they knew my effectiveness through indirect channels (e.g., my
workshops on writing), so they were determined to schedule the appointments with
me particularly and did not want to wait until the last minute when there was a
possibility I would not be available. The number of my returning students was on the
rise. Nearly half of my students had follow-up appointments with me since the new
system was in operation; and at the end of the term sometimes five out of six of my
tutees were returning students.
Summary of Site 2 Findings
Consistent with Site 1, in Site 2 I had more ESL students–both immigrant and
international students than native speakers of English, and more relatively recent
immigrants than more established ones. Of the whole booking population, ESL
students (including immigrants) of color took up 65%, non-White Canadian-born
students 20%, White native students 5%, and White ESL students 10%. Although
Canadian-born students (one fourth of the whole booking population) booked me, the
number of the White, native students ranked the lowest. Still, no White
Site 1. Also akin to Site 1, among the ESL students, there were proportionally more
students from Asian backgrounds choosing to book follow-up appointments with me.
However, there were some noticeable changes in the Chinese student population in
Site 2 as compared with that in Site 1. During the first term after the new booking
system was in operation in Site 2, Chinese students overwhelmingly chose to work
with White, native-English speaking instructors. This experience differed from my
findings at Site 1, where in the older booking system Chinese students took up a
large percentage of my total ESL student population and the highest percentage of
my returning student population. As a general rule, Chinese normally do not like
anything from China. Xuan (2014) points out that Chinese people disdain goods and
services of Chinese origin and worship foreign objects, believing them to be superior.
Overall, Chinese students regarded native speakers of English as normalized ideal
English teachers and were not positively disposed toward a “made in China”
instructor if they had alternative choices. Nevertheless, during the second term at Site
2, the number of Chinese students was on the rise. I found that among my Chinese
student population, half of them had visited other native instructors several times or
many times before visiting me first. Consistent with Site 1 regarding Chinese
students’ high percentage of revisits, at Site 2 nearly half of my Chinese students returned to visit me; among them, over half of the population had visited me
throughout the term or the academic year. As well, similar to Site 1, at Site 2 Chinese
returning students covered the highest percentage of the total revisiting student
gradual recognition of my value as an instructor. Also, it showed that Chinese
students found it more suitable for them to work with a Chinese instructor from their
own culture.
Instructively, like Chinese students, over one third of the students who booked
me had visited several other instructors before they (first) visited me. Additionally,
half of the students who returned to have follow-up visits with me in the new online
system had already visited other instructors as well prior to their meetings with me.
This is not in line with my findings at Site 1 where students who had other
instructors before were more demanding especially when first seeing me. Last, but
not least, the students who had booked me by themselves directly at Site 2 registered
higher degrees of satisfaction as compared with those who were paired with me by
the Writing Department at Site 1. This is likely because unlike students in the
original booking system, students at Site 2 had a chance to view my biography before
their appointments with me, and therefore were not shocked or confused upon
encountering a non-native speaker of Chinese origin.
Finally, in the new booking system, besides my native Canadian students, my
foreign-born students came from the same continents with those in Site 1, except
East Europe. As compared with the students at Site 1 who were assigned by the
Writing Department to me, at Site 2 no East European students ever booked me on