ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a wide range of national traditions that shape student writing in myriad ways. In fact, it's tempting to concede that writing is too deeply situated within each educational culture to make any sensible comparisons possible, and leave it at that. The development of students' agency as writers has much to do, then, with how systemic expectations are communicated and how students are motivated to respond. Setting expectations for the literacies of students coming to universities in postcolonial nations is both crucial and difficult. That is clear from both Suellen Shay and Rob Moore study and Muchiri's description of the difficulties Kenyan students have with academic writing at university. The traditions underlying each system shape the place of writing in social and political goals, which are expressed through educational access policies and in school and university curricula.
