Historically, the U.S. has been a safe haven for the immigrants. It is by no means a country of heterogenous culture. Ostensibly, the cultural diversity is touted as the defining component of the U.S. cultural tradition. When it comes to education however, this apparent cultural diversity is neither acknowledged nor utilized to cater to the academic needs of minority students who constitute 20 percent of the total student population in the U.S. school system ( Fu & Matush, 2006). For example, the dominant approach to composition pedagogy which characterizes the U.S. academic system is still expressivist or personal identity approach (Johns,1999), which focuses exclusively on developing individual voice and identity, personal interests, and personal meaning making. Emperical evidence abound to indicate that the personal identity approach to composition pedagogy has not critically considered so as to draw upon the culture -specific way of learning prevalent among the minority students. Consquently, as far as academic achievement is concerned, the minority students lag behind relative to their While counterparts. Against this background, Johns (1999), proposes socioliterate approach to composition pedagogy which contends that the production of texts is a social activity. In order to appreciate a text fully, the collective social components (i.g., religion, culture, socioeconomic condition, political events) should be analyzed, unlike the expressivist approach to composition which only emphasizes development of individual voice. It seems to me a promising pedagogical approach to maximize learning outcome for the minority students in the U.S. provided that the following question is addressed:
The number of minority students is on the rise in the U.S. Integration of home culture into a standard curriculum is critical for their academic growth as such. But the number of minority teachers is on the decline. Then, does a different pedagogical approach such as socioliterate approach which effect any substantial change in learning outcome among the minority students when the studnets