Rearticulating the Role of Peer Tutors as Change Agents in U.S. and European Writing Centers

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the professional role of peer tutors in writing centers in Europe and the U.S., highlighting transferable skillsets learned outside of tutoring. After exploring the work of European and U.S. scholars such as Girgensohn, Trimbur, professional skills manifest in organizing, presenting, and attending events for peer tutors. I then present Tennessee Tutor Collaboration Day and European Peer Tutor Day as current models of peer-to-peer (P2P) collaboration and explore the benefits and barriers of each. After proposing three transnational models for improving P2P collaboration across borders, I offer practical suggestions for how they can be implemented. I conclude by discussing further implications of P2P collaboration between U.S. and European writing centers that will potentially catalyze new approaches to research and cultivate richer scholarship for the international writing center community.