This article explores findings from a multiyear, multisite study of new college writing instructors. First, the authors describe the principles that guide new instructors’ teaching and reveal the number of resources that new instructors draw on beyond the pedagogy seminar. Second, they delineate how the kinds of classroom narratives these instructors choose to tell points to a range of understandings about what it means to teach writing. Finally, they argue that learning to teach writing is a complex process requiring sustained mentoring and support throughout the early years of teaching.

As they prepare to teach writing, new teachers should respond to writing assignments that we deliberately design to be difficult, exploratory, or critically reflective, so that they may better develop flexibility and engagement as learners, teachers, and theorists in the field of writing instruction.

Research Article| January 01 2004 Starting Somewhere Better: Revisiting Multiculturalism in First-Year Composition E. Shelley Reid E. Shelley Reid Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Pedagogy (2004) 4 (1): 65–92. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-4-1-65 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation E. Shelley Reid; Starting Somewhere Better: Revisiting Multiculturalism in First-Year Composition. Pedagogy 1 January 2004; 4 (1): 65–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-4-1-65 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsPedagogy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2004 Duke University Press2004 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Articles You do not currently have access to this content.