Abstract
In response to a need within the field of composition studies within the Anglosphere (the English-speaking world) for further investigation into the teaching of composition in non-Anglo contexts, this thesis seeks to provide a contextualized description of the attitudes held concerning the teaching of composition in one non-Anglo setting, the Republic of Peru. I have considered official documents published on the Peruvian Ministry of Education website, textbooks currently in use in Peruvian public secondary schools, and interviews with four communication instructors who teach in the city of Trujillo, Peru, with the purpose of investigating the values and characteristics disparate bodies within a national context beyond the Anglosphere ascribe to the teaching of composition. The categories used in coding each of the texts and transcripts include what forms of composition are promoted, what modes of communication are emphasized, what geographies are represented, and whether local or global composition concerns are emphasized by each of the sites and participants. Through the implementation of both qualitative and quantitative methods, I consider several issues related to the teaching of composition and isolate community spirit, orality, and economics as characteristics of attitudes held concerning Peruvian composition instruction at the secondary level. I argue that each of these trends is indicative of the ways in which attitudes concerning composition instruction respond to the specific national context within which instruction occurs. This thesis suggests that a variety of factors influence the above-mentioned attitudes, and that scholarship conducted, curriculum designed, and pedagogical prescriptions developed within a given national context both arise from and respond to a peculiar set of circumstances present within that national context. For this reason, this project calls for an increase in scholarship seeking to understand the many ways composition is perceived and taught throughout the world, particularly in heretofore neglected non-Anglo contexts.
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