Nicole Soley

Tutoring to Instill Empowerment and Autonomy Within Peers

Power is a strong word. For me, the word power often carries a negative connotation.
The word can be associated with possession, exploitation, oppression, and privilege, among other
negatively connotated words. In this way, I often think about the word power is often thought
about in terms of how it affects or implies affects upon others. I have realized that there is one
positive use of the word power. I realized this context of the word when talking to Lisa Coons, a
local advocate for having access to healthy, locally grown foods. Lisa is the co-director of a
nonprofit dedicated to that mission. My work at the nonprofit with her as a mentor has been an
experience of transformation for me. Lisa explained to me her reflections on my work at the
center. She felt that I was beginning to find my power in this life. Here, the word power has
a very positive context for me, because it is used in a context of empowerment. The word
empowerment is frequently use in enabling contexts rather than exploitive ones.
Empowerment is a very important idea for me at this time in my life. The word relates to my
feelings toward myself, the aims of my present body of artwork, and, more generally, while
perhaps no less complex, the purpose of life. As an artist, a teacher, and tutor, empowerment
guides my work in all three of these roles. Specifically within tutoring, empowerment is a central
idea within my tutoring philosophy. At the center of my tutoring philosphy exists a nonlinear,
fleixble, student-centered approach in order to empower each and every individual, diverse
student.
Peer tutoring is a nonlinear, flexible relationship through which idea exchange can occur.
Peer tutoring is a fluid. It is a process of ebb and flow. Like art making and art meaning, the
process of tutoring is nonlinearthe questions and answers circle and spin as the relationship
between tutor and tutee adapts and maneuvers. During a peer-tutoring session, the relationship

between the tutor and tutee is the space in which the exchange of ideas occurs. The tutor and
tutee interpret each other and interact with one another based on each individuals personality,
strengths, weaknesses, and learning and facilitation styles. Both individuals directly influence the
process and direction of the session, leading to questions and answers.
My tutoring approach adapts to each and every individual student. When tutoring, it is
important to me that the appointment ebbs and flows in accordance with the tutees needs and
writing styles. This way, the tutee is plays a greater role in the learning process while I, the tutor,
am merely guiding the appointment. In this way, tutoring empowers students through a
personalized, one-on-one setting. I believe in the conversational nature of tutoring sessions
where the direction of the appointment rests largely in the hands of the student. A tutors role is a
role of encouragement. The tutor occasionally takes on a teaching role when the tutee requests
the explanation of a concept. Peer tutoring is done on a collaborative, meet you where youre
at basis. This idea of using student-centered approaches is not new to me. As a future teacher, I
have learned the importance of considering the individual needs of each and every student when
planning for instruction. The one-on-one sessions with tutees are like mini classrooms to me
where I can learn to accommodate for the diverse needs of my peers or future students.
Adapting my tutoring approach to each student is eessential to my tutoring philosopy. In
order to adapt my tutoring approach to each and ever student, I use questioning. This is a fluid
and flexible process that fosters a conversational appointment that is in the hands of the tutee. I
begin by asking the student questions about the assignment: what does the assignment entail?
What does the rubric ask for? How much progress have you made on the assignment? Have you
received feedback from a professor or peer at all? I then ask questions about what kind of
feedback they need followed by questions about how they would prefer to go about the

appointment: would the student like to read outloud or should I? What would you like me to
focus on in my feedback? By asking these and similar questions, I can learn about the students
needs, confidences, weaknesses, characteristics, and preferences in relationship to their writing
process. and how they prefer to work. Learning this information through questioning helps me
to adapt my tutoring style to what each individual tutee needs.
My tutoring philosphy is one of a nonlinear, fleixble, student-centered nature in order to
empower each and every individual, diverse student. In addition to empowering students, I feel
that writing center work also empowers the tutors that work there, myself included. I feel great
euphoria when I know I have helped to foster a breakthrough moment for a tutee. A memorable
instance of empowerment was when I unknowingly helped to inspire a peer to pursue further
learning. My friend, who is applying to grad schools, mentioned he was struggling with his
personal statements. I mentioned my walk-in library hours to him and he agreed he would come
in. We discussed ways for him to improve his statement by including his strengths and skills.
Additionally, we discussed how to use a semi colon. He was very excited about learning how to
use one of these. I love to teach students about semi colons; they are my favorite punctuation. He
was excited about all that he had learned in the appointment and optimistic about the new ideas
we discussed. He thanked me for my help excitedly. A few days later, his friend Jacob told me
that he had found the appointment incredibly inspiring. He was so inspired by our session that he
had told Jacob his goal was to start reading more books. As multilingual student, his desire to
read many books was to become better at English and to become smarter, like me, Jacob
explained. Our time together had empowered him to make a personal goal to read more to help
his language acquisition. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes. The feeling I experienced after
understanding the impact I had had on my peer was a feeling of euphoria unlike any other.

Additionally, I felt an incredible sense of power. I recognize my impact as a tutor is not one that I
will often be able to directly see. This moment of realization helped me to directly see the
empowerment that occurs in spaces of peer tutoringempowerment that results for both the
tutor and the tutee.This is the power of peer-tutoring: instilling empowerment and a sense of
autonomy within students that may question their own abilities or position in an institutional
system.