Towards greater equality: Power and role relations involved in response to student writing

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the history and continued relevance of theory relating to political and power relations inherent in response to student writing and student perceptions of these relationships. The article notes the vast discrepancy between South African students studying in the distance-teaching context and the American classroom context in which much of the research in the field has been conducted to date. As a result of the distance-teaching context, response to student writing is restricted in this article to students’ perceptions of written feedback given by lecturers to writing they submitted for assignments. The perceptions of first-year University of South Africa students, registered for an English for Specific Purposes module, were elicited by means of a questionnaire. This shows the degree to which students perceive lecturers to be adopting a judging rather than a facilitative role. Tentative solutions to address the problem of unequal power relations are suggested. The aim is to move towards greater collaboration and sharing of power rather than an abdication of power by the teacher.

Keywords:

• appropriation
• power
• response roles
• student writing