Many Cultures, Many Voices

Learners in our programs come from many cultures. Some are First Nations learners; some are settlers whose families came to this country decades ago or yesterday. Some come from the white protestant English-speaking culture that is dominant in most of North America, others from marginalized groups. Differences in wealth, gender, sexual orientation, and levels of physical and mental abilities further divide learners into subgroups.

Writing grows out of culture. Learners from every group bring particular styles of storytelling and humour. Every group has rules about what things can be mentioned in polite company and what things are better not spoken of, much less written down. In the writing program, every learner should be able to speak and write in an authentic voice, honouring their heritage.

Practitioners must be prepared to welcome these many voices, to make space for them to shine. Many First Nations learners, for example, come from a strong oral tradition, and have a well-developed sense of what makes the spoken word effective and memorable. The same may be said for learners raised in a tradition that includes frequent attendance at sermons and religious revivals. Expect to find in their writing rhythms that please the ear, sentence structures that repeat and build to a climax, and wordplay that makes their ideas easy to remember. You can hold up these techniques as examples of effective writing.

Some cultures tell stories about a situation that requires action, but they leave the ending open for readers to come to their own decision about what should be done. Others tell a story and end it with a definite statement that gives one, and only one, lesson to be taken from the story. The difference in format and organization of each story comes from different values and contrasting patterns in culture, teaching, and learning.

I was raised in a white middle-class family, and I went to university, so I am most comfortable with endings that wrap up loose threads and state a definite conclusion. When I get a piece of writing that leaves me hanging, free to make my own conclusions, I need to be careful to set my assumptions aside. I need to recognize a different kind of voice than I’m used to and figure out how it works, instead of feeling vaguely unsatisfied because I don’t see a “real” ending.

I try to honour all the different styles of thinking and writing by remembering, and reminding learners, that all styles developed to serve the needs of the people who use them. Every writer writes for an audience and an occasion. The start of any good writing is figuring out your audience, the occasion you are writing for, and who you are in relation to both. Learners who begin at that point are able to speak in their own voice.