Throughout Matsud’a et al (2006) The Politics of Second Language Writing: In Search of the Promised Land, I shuttled in between the different challenges that SLW teachers and second language writers face, whether it be on the institutional or political level as well as an individual developmental level. At first glance, it might seem that the first level is exogenous and the second endogenous, yet both levels are interrelated and intertwine. Institutional and political decisions in terms of program administration, curricula, etc. do impact classroom practices which in turn impact both the teacher’s pedagogical choices and the student’s attainment. Although then foci was on L2 writers, much of the discussions apply to students in general.
Having the book end on such a positive realistic tone was very pragmatic. In fact, it demonstrates that academia is a very dynamic arena. One way or rather the best way to use in order to cope with this shifting nature of academia according to Vandrick is, for teachers, to be armed with reflection. Reflective teaching and administration will help second language writers reach the promised land they aim at.
Kroll eloquently elaborated on the promised land metaphor. By promises, she advocates “the position that an institution has a moral and ethical responsibility to provide English language courses and/or other language assistance to the nonnative English speaking (NNES) students it accepts into its various degree programs”(Kroll, 2006, p. 297).
Unfortunately, Kroll believes that not many North American institutions of higher education “provide optimal learning environments”, and aren’t, thus, “Promised Land Institutions (PLIs)”. Yet, she classifies North American institutions of higher education on “a continuum ranging from total success to total failure in serving their NNES students”. In analyzing the complexities on setting PLI, she gives 5 hopes and their corresponding difficult realities. For her, the faculty who struggled and continue to struggle to establish PLIs need to be saluted because this is not an easy task. Teachers strive in their classrooms to enable their students to reach their goals successfully.
