Ashoka Reflections_NOVEMBER 2023
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Ashoka Reflections | Page 09
The centre’s teaching activities are carried out in the form of one-on-one tutorial sessions, short courses or
workshops and full semester-long courses. In all these formats the focus is on developing the most
fundamental academic writing and communication skills. These include basic questions such as ‘What is
academic writing?’ and ‘What is critical thinking?’ to ethics of research writing and presenting complex
research coherently and clearly. CWC has a robust programme for English Language Teaching which provides
year-long support to the most vulnerable students at Ashoka. This is unique to Ashoka’s writing centre and
includes the Academic Bridge Programme, the English Communication courses taught during the Monsoon
and Spring semesters by the Centre and the learning strategies embedded in the other courses at Ashoka.
The teaching-learning material created by the CWC will eventually contribute towards an open-access
knowledge bank with resources available for use by teachers and students, in multiple languages. Just this
year, CWC has released two resources: an online course for students titled Introduction to Academic Integrity
and Ethics, and a guide for teachers for inclusive teaching practices for students in the classroom.
CWC’s research draws upon our teaching experience at the university and, in turn, supports it. Our
interactions with students and teachers at Ashoka have brought forth new questions and revealed novel
possibilities. We have learnt as we have taught. We would like to learn more—a fundamental privilege of
being a part of a university. Our conferences have provided a platform for scholars, practitioners and
students to come together and explore the most fundamental as well as pressing issues in the field of higher
education. An ongoing research project at CWC examines the relationship between language, pedagogy and
inclusion through a case study of Ashoka University and seeks to make recommendations at the level of policy
and pedagogical practices.
The centre’s teaching and research programmes, while primarily directed at the academic community at
Ashoka, have a wider relevance for other higher education institutions in India, and indeed South Asia. Many
of our programmes are open to the public and our outreach activities include collaborating with other
colleges and universities to teach and create learning material on academic and professional writing and
communication.
The biggest strength of the CWC is the composition of its team. We have made a conscious effort to create a
team where its members come from diverse backgrounds— disciplinary, linguistic and with the experience of
writing in different contexts (academic, journalistic, popular, fiction and nonfiction). We particularly value
educators with experience in creating learning materials for different kinds of audiences. Some of our team
members have experience working with school children and neo-literates, creating learning material in
distance mode, and as language teachers for English and other Indian languages. And, they have varying
levels of educational qualifications: some have a Ph.D. while others have a postgraduate degree. CWC team
has included anthropologists working on humour, music and food, a lawyer researching manual scavengers,
students of English literature and composition, a scholar and writer of children’s books, artists, journalists,
translators, and a historian researching with textual, visual, and ethnographic material. These scholars and
professionals have worked with different kinds of writing and communication practices which when put
together in a university setting, introduce a range of ways of thinking about the world.
The diversity of expertise in the team, I believe, is instrumental to the CWC’s vision. When a group of scholars
and professionals with diverse experiences work closely with each other throughout the year to discuss
reading, writing, communication and pedagogy, only then can we truly begin thinking about a vibrant writing
centre.
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