Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1997 Writing instruction in western Canadian universities: a history of nation-building and professionalism Kevin Alfred Brooks Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Liberal Studies Commons, Other Education Commons, Other History Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons, and the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Brooks, Kevin Alfred, "Writing instruction in western Canadian universities: a history of nation-building and professionalism " (1997). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 11776. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/11776 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. 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UMI A Bell & Ifowell Infonnation Conqiariy 300 North Zed} Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Writing instruction in western Canadian universities; A history of nation-building and professionalism by Kevin Alfred Brooks A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PfflLOSOPHY Major Rhetoric and Professional Communication Major Professor: David R. Russell Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1997 Copyright © Kevin Alfred Brooks, 1997. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 9737690 Copyright 1997 by- Brooks, Kevin Alfred All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9737690 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 u Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation of Kevin Alfred Brooks has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. Committ^ Memb^ Signature was redacted for privacy. Committee^e'mber Signature was redacted for privacy. itteeMen£q^ Signature was redacted for privacy. Committee Member Signature was redacted for privacy. ior Professor Signature was redacted for privacy. or the Major Program Signature was redacted for privacy. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: NATION-BUILDING AND PROFESSIONALISM 1 CHAPTER 2. HIGHER EDUCATION MODELS IN NORTH AMERICA (1880-1929) 26 CHAPTER 3. ENLISTMENT AND HARVARDIZATION OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS IN WESTERN CANADA (1908-1937) 50 CHAPTER 4. THE GENERAL EDUCATION MOVEMENT IN NORTH AMERICA (1929-1946) 95 CHAPTER 5. DEMOCRATIC AND ARISTOCRATIC ATTTTUDES TOWARDS WRITING INSTRUCTION IN WESTERN CANADA (1937-1957) 131 CHAPTER 6. GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION IN NORTH AMERICA (1947-1966) 174 CHAPTER 7. DISTINCT NATIONS, DISTINCT CURRIUCULUMS (1957-1976) 202 CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION: FREE TRADE AND THE FATE OF WRITING INSTUCnON IN NORTH AMERICA 231 APPENDIX. REVIEWING AND REDESCRIBING "THE POLITICS OF 243 HISTORIOGRAPHY": OCTALOG 1,1988 NOTES 263 WORKS CITED 273 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to David Russell for his firm and sure guidance of this project. He has made me a much better scholar and writer. Thanks also to the rest of my committee for their encouragement and feedback: Michael Mendelson, John Hagge, Virginia Allen, and David Owen. Tom Kent and Charie Thralls were not directly involved on this project, but they provided encouragement on this and other projects, and they enriched my time at Iowa State University in numerous ways. Many people outside of Iowa State contributed to this project as well. Henry Hubert's groundbreaking work on English studies in Canada made this dissertation possible, and his friendship and interest in my woric have been very important to me. Roger Graves also paved an important path into the study of writing instruction in Canada, and his encouragement has been valuable. I have talked to a number of people formally and informally about this project over the last two years, and particular thanks for insightfiil observations and valuable personal accounts of studying and working in westem Canada must go to Sandra Djwa, Andrea Lunsford, and Walter Swayze. A special thanks goes to Jim Black who has been a friend and inspiration throughout my graduate career. I received helpful assistance from the archive staffs at the universities of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Calgary, and British Columbia. The T. Glendenning Hamilton Research Grant Program of the University of Manitoba provided generous support of this project in its earliest stages. Parts of chapters 3 and 4 will appear in Textual Studies in Canada and Great Plains Quarterly. The Appendix will appear in Rhetoric Review. My parents, Alf and Beth Brooks, have been supportive in the usual ways, but have also tracked down books and information for me. Other members of my family and fiiends encouraged me, hosted me while doing research, and gave me rides between cities: thanks to all of you. I usually keep my professional and personal lives separate, but you inhabit both Betsy—thanks for everything. V ABSTRACT Writing instruction in western Canadian universities between 1908 and 1957 was seen as a necessary technology of nation-building and the proper jurisdiction of English departments. After 1957, specialization in western Canadian universities enabled English departments to claim literature as the proper disciplinary object of their field and exclude writing instruction from their jurisdiction. Only recently has writing instruction returned to western Canadian university curriculums, but not in any systematic fashion. This study challenges the standard account of writing instruction in Canada: that the traditional first-year literature and composition class favored literature at the expense or even exclusion of composition. This smdy also challenges the idea that higher education and English departments in western Canada were primarily influenced by the University of Toronto, rather than American universities and English departments. American influences on western Canadian education were prevalent during the first half of this century. The contemporary difference in the practice of writing instruction in the two countries can be traced to a Canadian rejection of American values and practices during the Cold War. The Canada Council (1957) was particularly effective in solidifying the professional role of English departments as protectors and disseminators of high culture. While literary studies in the US also benefited from Cold War funding of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the growth of composition as a legitimate academic field was a far more significant development of this era. The past does not offer us something better to return to, but knowing that English smdies in North America throughout this century has largely been tied to the work of nation- building, we must now assess the work of English studies and writing instruction in an era in which the role of the nation-state is changing radically and the function of higher education is up for grabs. 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: NATION-BUILDING AND PROFESSIONALISM Despite periodic alarms about the pernicious effects of American's poor writing, the nation's secondary- and higher-education systems, its vast industrial plant, cultural activities, and governmental structures have never been crippled by poor writing; indeed, for the last half century America has been the cultural, educational, and scientific center of the world, as well as the dominant world power. Somehow, enough Americans learned to write in the ways they needed to in order to carry on, and rather well at that. The experience of other industrialized nations (few of whom have composition courses in higher education) would suggest that students can and do leam to write as a regular part of their education or of their work in a discipline or a profession. David R. Russell, Writing 19 In light of Russell's description