The University of Connecticut has an impressive writing center where students have access to feedback and guidance from fellow college students or professors in order to write grade A work. The man who started it all is named Tom Deans. Tom has a clear passion for writing and developing a workshop-based process for student writers at the University of Connecticut. His role at UConn is not only active in the English department as a professor of many introductory writing courses, but he also teaches graduate-level courses and STEM-based writing courses. It is important to recognize Tom’s teaching philosophy; he encourages a project-based curriculum where there is more room for collaboration and creativity for one’s writing. His courses contain a lot of peer reviewing and mentoring, where there is development of many drafts before the finished project. This perspective of writing is similar to what the Connecticut Writing Project practices and encourages all students and professors to do. In fact, Tom Deans has done direct work with Jason Courtmanche and other colleagues at CWP, developing this different-styled curriculum of writing.
Tom’s experience with this writing workshop-based curriculum has progressed into many different collegiate courses. For example, Tom now assists with introducing this curriculum in STEM major W courses. His work has gone further than the University of Connecticut; he is currently teaching at Uganda Christian University to develop the same curriculum there and launch a writing center as well. However, Tom has faced some challenges during his time in Uganda so far. There are distinct differences between the education there compared to what Tom is used to at UConn. The educational landscape in Uganda presented distinct differences from Tom’s experience at the University of Connecticut, including the impact of COVID-19, student-professor expectations, and curriculum flexibility. While many classes in Uganda had returned to in-person instruction, Tom’s two online courses presented a significant logistical barrier for his students. He noted that many students did not have access to a device required to join the daily classes. These technological and infrastructural disparities, combined with a 3% vaccination rate, meant students faced unique challenges to their studies that required adaptation from both the faculty and the students themselves.
Tom found that establishing a rapport with his students in Uganda required navigating distinct cultural expectations within the academic setting. For example, his graduate students preferred to call him “Professor” because it denoted him as a formal authority. This formality extended to a classroom dynamic that was rooted in a tradition where the professor lectures and students receive instruction, offering little room for the kind of peer collaboration Tom encourages. Tom realized he needed to find a common ground while introducing his curriculum, so he accepted being called “Professor” and adjusted to what was normal for his current students.
Tom reflects on his experience as a valuable opportunity to learn from a different educational system. He gained a new understanding of the students’ dedication and resilience within their academic environment. Despite the logistical difficulties he encountered, Tom recommends the experience to others, emphasizing that it fosters deep cultural learning and allows for the development of genuine connections. His future goals include continuing to collaborate with colleagues at Uganda Christian University to strengthen their writing center, a partnership he also hopes to extend to high schools in the U.S. Tom’s commitment to building bridges between different academic communities and fostering a mutual exchange of knowledge is an inspiration to the work of CWP.