The hermeneutics of language : reconciling prescriptivism, descriptivism, and post-colonialism

English academia is facing a crisis, with departments closing, the canon in question, and its purpose interrogated. Complicating English’s angst are accusations of its perpetuation of colonialism by enforcing academic standards. The teaching of writing has become dominated by two often dichotomized approaches, prescriptivism and descriptivism. However, a truly post-colonial composition pedagogy must reject this imposed dichotomization, building instead a new understanding of the interdependent relationship between prescriptivism and descriptivism.