This essay argues that students must call on their rhetorical sensibilities each time they sit down to write instead of automatically assuming that engaging in code-meshing is the appropriate response to every writing situation. It also encourages pedagogical efforts among teachers that invite students to locate translingualism in its larger contextual relationship with monolingualism and multlingualism, two other approaches to language difference that inform the teaching of writing. In the end, the essay suggests, students must take into consideration how each of these approaches to language difference influences the various decisions they are required to make in the writing classroom.

In 2009, Reflections sponsored a panel titled “De-centering Dewey,” at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. The following statements reflect the comments of the program participants, Ellen Cushman, Juan Guerra, and Steve Parks. A question and answer period followed these remarks, which is also reproduced below. Speaker comments have been edited for clarity.