1. 1
Initiatives on educating writers in Colombian Higher Education: reading ethnographically their
websites as a pre-fieldwork
Elizabeth Narváez-Cardona
Abstract
Writing in higher education in Spanish-speaking countries is an emerging field of social sciences in Latin-
America. An ongoing project aiming at mapping current initiatives in the region have revealed that in the
Colombian case, one of the less frequent initiatives undertaken seems to be the writing centers.
Consequently, exploring what counts as "writing centers" in the Colombian case might provide insights
upon conceptions on educating writers from this specific institutional site as well as understandings of the
small presence of this type of initiative. To this exploratory project the websites publicizing the writing
centers are “pieces” of a larger everyday phenomena related to such initiatives. Therefore, I have deemed
this project an effort in starting the pre-field work, particularly, in reading ethnographically two websites
of Colombian writing centers. Ethnography involves an ongoing inquiry process in which the
ethnographer slowly grasps meaning from the community while acknowledges what could be an
interesting focus of analysis. To pursue a dynamic view of the writing centers, this preliminary project
requires gathering more information in the actual fields in which such initiatives have been undertaken in
the Colombian universities. Especially, what is not ordinary and problematic should be investigated given
that the information provided by the websites is not enough to talk about these aspects of the everyday
life in writing centers.
Introduction
Writing in higher education in Spanish-speaking countries is an emerging field of social sciences
in Latin-America (Figure 1). The scholarship led by the Chairs of UNESCO for reading and writing in Latin-
America (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico), has advocated since 90´s to educating writers for
citizenship (Ortiz-Casallas, 2011). This means educating readers and writers able for self-learning, and as
thoughtful consumers of the abundant information provided by mass media, technological
communication, and commercial discourses (Martínez, 2001 & 2004).
Different tendencies have emerged from these initiatives. One movement has argued, until 2006
approximately, that incoming university students bring shortcomings as writers; thus, writing has been
taught in freshman courses (Murillo, 2010). A recent movement, mostly influenced by the leadership of an
argentine scholar, has advocated in the last 6 years that academic writing is a disciplinary practice learned
exclusively in higher education (Carlino, 2001; 2006; 2008). Consequently, it is expected that universities
provide diverse, intensive, and sustained specialized settings to encourage writing developments of
undergraduate and graduate students (Murillo, 2010).
Regarding public policies, the Colombian government has mandated since 2010 a compulsory
undergraduate assessment in the last year of the programs. The assessment on writing abilities in Spanish
is one of the components of this public policy.

2. 2
Figure 1
The benchmarks of the Colombian field on higher education writing
The government mandated the large scale
assessment (writing abilities in Spanish)
Pruebas del Saber PRO
2010
1999 2006 2006 2012
 UNESCO for reading and writing  Argentine influence (Paula
movements in Latin-America for Carlino/Phycology )
educating writers for citizenship and  Scholar movements advocating “academic
self-learning literacy” to educating faculty members and
 Scholar movements advocating graduate students as disciplinary writers
freshman courses to remediate student  Theoretical frameworks: sociocultural
shortcomings psychology, new literacy studies (literature
 Theoretical frameworks: textual in Spanish), and WAC and WID
linguistics, discourse analysis, genre movements (literature in English)
studies, psycholinguistic, and didactic
of mother tongue (Spanish).
2009
Emerged the first generation of writing
centers in the country
An ongoing project called “Initiatives on reading and writing in higher education, ILEES, Latin-
1
America” has collected information through an online survey applied to about 67 scholars in Argentina,
Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Among other issues, these scholars have provided information about the
initiatives led by their universities or other universities, up to 10 institutions, in their countries.
In the Colombian case, one of the less frequent initiatives seems to be the writing centers along
with initiatives undertaken in foreign languages, and programs in charge of integrating the initiatives as
freshman courses, disciplinary writing after the first year, and writing across the curriculum, or graduate
writing courses (figure 2).
1
This project started in summer 2012 as part of my doctorate experience, which has been developed along with a
Chilean colleague and by the guidance of Professor Bazerman of the Department of Education in University of
California, Santa Bárbara.

3. 3
Figure 2
Tendencies of the initiatives in the Colombian case
Exploring what counts as "writing centers" in the Colombian case might provide insights upon
conceptions on educating writers from this specific institutional site as well as understandings of the small
presence of this type of initiative displayed by the outcomes of the online survey applied in the ILEES
project. Further, conducting micro-ethnographies upon such initiatives might be useful in understanding
their local meaning-making processes.
This paper is organized in four sections. The first one presents the theoretical framework assumed
thus far; the following section deploys the process of data collection and analysis of the pre-field work
that I have conducted in reading ethnographically two websites of Colombian writing centers; and finally,
the third section proposes further research efforts from an ethnographic perspective.

4. 4
Theoretical framework
The academic field on higher education writing has addressed different disciplinary and research
approaches, which have been strongly configured by the features of the local university systems and the
home-based public policies in education. Consequently, researching on higher education writing has
aimed at exploring two sites. On the one hand, the expectations of the governments through their public
policies and of the university directives; and, on the other hand, the historical accounts about how and
why writing in higher education has become either a pedagogic goal or a research focus. Identifying both
types of accounts are useful and necessary in guiding further research agendas regarding how and why
pedagogies on writing might impact higher education.
Theoretically speaking, this field has framed writing as an intertwined practice within university
contexts and disciplinary epistemologies (Lea y Street, 1998; Carlino, 2008). As a result, writing is
conceived as a historical and ideological practice and thus highly cognitively specialized (Bazerman, 2006;
Kalman, 2008). Consequently, literacy practices of students and faculty are part of a specialized knowledge
associated with epistemological and institutional contexts of higher education (Lea y Street, 1998).
Accordingly, theoretical developments in the field have claimed that becoming a writer is a complex
phenomenon highly configured by the conventions and expectations of their practitioners; however, since
such conventions and expectations are mostly a tacit knowledge, the access and practice of writing in
higher education are embedded in a struggle process for newcomers (Soliday, 2011; Thaiss & Myers,
2006).
Under this assumption, students´ shortcomings as writers are not interpreted as lacking of
grammar knowledge. Rather, these difficulties are seen as evidence of a complex process of
acknowledging, using, and accessing to literacy practices affected by the own personal histories
(Herrington y Curtis, 2000), and by institutional and disciplinary requirements and expectations,
particularly, from academic and university cultures (Hall y López, 2011).
To sum up, in this project the writing difficulties of students or faculty are not seen as deficits
(Ganobcsik-Williams, 2004). Rather, writing is understood as a specialized learning and practice for
participating within academic contexts (Carter, 2007); therefore, writing is an intellectual challenge and a
struggling process whereby writers build their own identities as members of disciplinary and university
communities (Herrington y Curtis, 2000; Castelló, 2007).
The figure 3 displays an attempt in summarizing and integrating visually some of the categories
involved in the theoretical framework presented.

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Figure 3
Depiction of the theoretical categories

6. 6
Methodological approach
To this exploratory project the websites publicizing the writing centers are “pieces” of a larger
everyday phenomena related to such initiatives. Despite the websites have been designed by other
professionals not necessarily involved directly with the initiatives, these websites’ designs have been
approved by the leaders of the initiatives; thus, inferences might be drawn from such online information.
Accordingly, I conducted an online search by Google under the key words in Spanish “Centro de
escritura en Colombia” to identify writing centers´ websites. The figure 4 displays the geographic location
of the four writing centers identified by the online search. These writing centers belong to private
universities located in the capital of the country, Bogotá D.C. (# 1 # 3), Santiago de Cali (# 2), and
Barranquilla (# 4). These three cities might be deemed as urban centers in economic terms. This first
approximation enabled me to frame ethnographically the first question: What counts as writing centers in
the Colombian case?
Figure 4
The Colombian writing center websites appointed by the Google search

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A first attempt in turning “reality” into texts
The first attempt in exploring meanings of the community that can be seen as a writing center, I
started making detailed written descriptions from the websites. This first attempt in turning what has been
stated by the websites into texts confirmed me that the huge challenge in analyzing ethnographically is
controlling ethnocentrism (Emerson, Fretz, Shaw, 1995). Accordingly, I conducted carefully a grand tour
observation to describe a website as well as using emic terms and taxonomies of the cultural grammar
pertain to the phenomenon analyzed (Green, Dixon, & Zaharlic, 2003).
I started to analyze the website of the writing center # 1 given this initiative belongs to the most
2
important private university in the country, Universidad de los Andes (Figure 1). To start my gran tour
observation, I decided to read the information available in the home page of the website, but aiming at
3
describing process and practices that could be inferred from the information deployed by the website .
Figure 1
A snapshot of the home page of the website of the writing center #1
2
Universidad de los Andes has been deemed as the best private university based on a Colombian ranking, which took
in consideration the number of international publications produced by the faculty members and the number of
research groups. Additionally, the ranking place took in consideration the amount of master and doctorate programs
offered by the University and that have been approved by the Ministry of Education in the institution. This information
has been retrieved from:
http://www.guiaacademica.com/educacion/personas/cms/colombia/articulos_de_expertos/2012/ARTICULO-WEB-
EEE_PAG-11598041.aspx
3
The website is available at: http://programadeescritura.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/centro-de-escritura

8. 8
I used a rubric with three columns in which I arranged texts, descriptions of cultural process or
practices, and my interpretations or glosses (Table 1). I have called “texts” to those sections in the website
that were clearly delimited graphically in the website design, because were envisioned as meaning units or
messages to interact with website´s readers. The figure 2 illustrates graphically the segmentations of the
texts in the case of the website of the writing center # 2.
Table 1
First analytic rubric designed
# Text Inscribed cultural process/practice My interpretation or gloss
1 University students could ask for the
services of an university site called: a
writing center to succeed in their
programs
In doing so, the student can set an What counts as writing
¿Qué es el Centro de Escritura? appointment with someone called assignments for the
-------------------------------------- “tutor” to receive assistance in participants?
El Centro de Escritura es un lugar al que los writing assignments
estudiantes de todas las carreras pueden asistir para This tutor will be a graduate student
recibir tutorías que los lleven a mejorar sus habilidades During the appointment the tutor What this mean? What is the
de escritura para enfrentar exitosamente los retos will work with the student who set difference between working
académicos de la vida universitaria. Los tutores del the appointment, not with his/her with the student rather than
Centro trabajan con los estudiantes para mejorar sus texts working with his/her text?
textos, no con los textos. Students could practice their What counts of those for the
reading and writing skills according participants (tutor and
to their needs student)? Especially, what
would be a need?
Student should bring to Why?
appointments the instructors´
prompts and the text
Figure 2
Graphic depiction of the segmentation of the website pages by texts
Text 1
Text 2

9. 9
After having detailed descriptions in the rubric, semantic relationships were identified to categorize
the cultural grammar emerging from the data translated from the website (Spradley, 1979). The table 2
deploys an example of this analytic procedure.
Table 2
Rubric to analyzing semantic relationships
Relationship Form Example Comments/gloss
Spatial X is a place in Y A writing center is a place (is
part of) in the Universidad de
los Andes
Cause-effect X is a result of Y Succeed in the programs is the
Universidad de los Andes is a
result of attending to the
writing center
Rationale X is a reason for doing Y Having writing assignments is a If it so, the entire student
reason to setting appointments population should attend to
in the writing center the writing center, because
writing assignments are the
most common means to
evaluate students
Attribution X is an attribution Being a graduate student is an
(characteristic) of Y attribution of being a tutor
Since I realized that I had not been consistently systematic in making visible the cultural
knowledge (e.g., beliefs, views the world, rights, and obligations), the following analytic rubric (Table 3)

10. 10
has been designed to pursue such aim (Green, Dixon., & Zaharlick, 2003). For this second analytic attempt,
I explored the website of the writing center # 2 of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Santiago de Cali.
Table 3
An analytic rubric to make visible cultural knowledge
No. Texts What is First Actors Routines Meanings Membership
happening? impressions/questions for the
actors
1 This university Who could be these The writing Free The Members of
Bienvenido al Centro
unit is giving others? center writing university academic
de Escritura Javeriano
welcome to tutoring unit is for community
La Pontificia others Members of members of (?)
Universidad Javeriana the the
se pone a la This university academic academic
vanguardia de las unit deems community unit (?)
universidades de itself as an
Colombia lanzando el innovative
nuevo Centro de initiative,
Escritura Javeriano. because it is
Este es el primer first writing
centro de escritura en center in the
Colombia, y uno de country and
los primeros en one of the first
América Latina, que in Latin
ofrece servicios de American
tutorías de escritura, region
de manera gratuita, a
los miembros de su The university
comunidad unit offers free
académica. writing
tutoring to
members of
the academic
community
Finally, I re-read the translations I had been done thus far, and I decided to conduct more
consistent efforts to describe ethnographically the website of the writing center # 2 of the Pontificia
Universidad Javeriana in Santiago de Cali. This website seems to be more complete in providing
information in contrast to the website of the writing center # 1, of the Universidad de los Andes. In doing
so, this final analytic attempt pursued to describe the information relied on the basic questions to start
ethnographies in education (Green, Skuskaikate & Baker, 2012). The table # 4 illustrates the rubric used in
doing such analysis.

11. 11
Table 4
Describing the website from ethnography in education questions
Texts What is What is By whom? With What What What What What What What What Comment
happenin being whom? counts as roles are relationshi norms are expectatio rights are obligation counts as s
g? accomplis disciplinar constructe ps are constructe ns are constructe s are HE
hed? y d by and constructe d by and constructe d by and constructe writing?
knowledg afforded d by and afforded d by and afforded d by and
e in this members? afforded members? afforded members? afforded
particular members? members? members?
group?
Screensh The WC Offering the WC ? Knowing WC, WC is a WC WC has Students WC Somethi
ot 1 offers resource how to students, kind of offers the and should ng that
resource s write and help to resource answers universit answer WC
s for universit universit s y students knows
students y y teachers and and
and teachers teachers can ask teachers universit
universit and question y
y students s teachers
teachers and
students
do not
know
The analysis conducted thus far enabled me to pose provisional answers upon what is ordinary
and predictable in the daily life of a writing center (Green & Zaharlic, 1991). For instance, a writing center
counts as a university site in which the students could ask for free writing tutoring to succeed in their
programs. In doing so, the student can set an appointment with someone called “tutor” to receive
assistance in accomplishing their writing assignments. This tutor will be a graduate student. During the
appointment the tutor interacts with the students and not with their texts. The students should bring to
the appointments, the instructors´ prompts and the actual texts written as part of their writing
assignments.
Furthermore, regarding the conceptions on educating writers, the preliminary analysis might
reveal that writing in writing centers is conceived mostly to support writing assignments to fulfill faculty
expectations; thus, students are provided by guidelines offered by the websites to support, among other
issues: a) citation strategies; b) strategies to understand and decipher the instructors’ expectations with
the writing assignments; and, c) strategies to incorporate language instructor patterns and specific
discourse style into writing assignments. The table 4 summarizes the semantic relationships identified as
part of a preliminary domain analysis conducted in which I relied to create the prior descriptions
(Spradley, 1979).

12. 12
Table 4
Semantic relationships
Relationship Form
Spatial WC is a place within universities
Cause-effect To succeed in higher education, writing assignments might be accomplished with the
support of WC
Rationale Having writing assignments is a reason to set appointments in WC
Since WC provides resources to understand and decipher writing assignments, obtaining
appointments in WC is useful.
Students has the right to not knowing how to start, develop, and finish their writing as well
as not knowing different types of documents
Location for action The WC is place offering strategies upon how to start writing assignments
Function Writing prompts are used to understand and decipher assignments
Sequence Understand and decipher faculty expectations is the first step in fulfill the assignments
Getting the prompt for the assignment is the prior step to set an appointment in the WC
Means-end Underlining specific demands in the prompts is a way to decipher the assignments.
Writing paragraphs and sections following the specific topics, questions or points written
by faculty in the prompts is a way to accomplish the assignments
Identify specific language patters and faculty discourse style is a way to accomplish faculty
expectations
Attribution Being a graduate student is an attribution of being a tutor
Further research efforts from an ethnographic perspective
Ethnography involves an ongoing inquiry process in which the ethnographer slowly grasps
meaning from the community while acknowledges what could be an interesting focus of analysis (Green,
Dixon, Zaharlick, 2012). To pursue a dynamic view of the writing centers, this preliminary project requires
gathering more information in the actual fields in which such initiatives have been undertaken in the
Colombian universities. Especially, what is not ordinary and problematic should be investigated given that
the information provided by the websites is not enough to talk about these aspects of the everyday life in
writing centers (Green & Zaharlic, 1991).
Ethnography in education is a field enabling to doubt upon common senses regarding learning,
knowledge, success, and effectiveness in formal educational settings (Green & Bloom, 1997). Accordingly,
further fieldwork from a diachronic approach is useful in pursuing to explore the actual literate practices
configured by a daily life of the Colombian writing centers (Heath, 1982). Any attempt in understanding
the tensions of the competing values between specific institutional sites, as the writing centers, and the
larger university missions allows boosting the Colombian debate of the scope of educating writers in
higher education.

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Given that members of groups and communities do not hold roles and points of views evenly,
further efforts includes creating data from the perspective of the different members of the community in
writing centers, namely, chairs of these initiatives, tutors, students, faculty members, and university
directives. Conducting interviews and collecting maps and representations provided by the participants
upon how they represent the daily-life of the events involved in the writing center practices might be
useful (Green, Dixon, Zaharlick, 2012).
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