ABSTRACT
This chapter examines writing transfer across the transition from high school to college at sites in very different national settings: Ireland, South Africa, and the United States. It posits that recognizing what students are bringing to college, which is by no means homogeneous, is essential given the massification of higher education internationally, which has led to greater diversity in the student population. College preparation and access or widening participation programs, which are supportive of effective transfer including writing transfer need to consider what happens before, on arrival of, and during the university experience within the broader context of the student's ongoing learning journey. The author's research suggests that students do bring dispositions and identities to writing in university; writing prior to and in university is not an unbiased activity for them. Pedagogically, learning in general, and writing transfer in particular, is much more likely to occur at a deep level where the learning environment is a learner-centered one.
