[Teaching_Composition] Agency, Advocacy and Advancing Writing *hello*

[Asao B. Inoue]

Thank you Debra, Phyllis, Michael, Chris, and Alex. This is a great
discussion. 

Let me piggy-back on Michael's and Alex's separate comments. THE biggest
question, I agree, is student ownership of writing and, I'll add, the
writing courses we teach. And I think these two separate issues, students
taking ownership of their writing in some way and students owning the
writing classroom, are connected. And let me offer one distinction. 

I wouldn't call this issue of ownership one of "investment." Of course,
investment is important for students, but it's not really the same as the
"ownership" of a writing course that Debra and Phyllis articulated so
clearly and persuasively. I think we too quickly and too often make this
into a "student problem" because that's the site where we, as teachers and
WPAs, see the "lack" of interest, effectiveness, and investment in the
actual products and processes of writing -- such as in those course
evaluations of which Michael speaks. But important in finding solutions to
this problem is an understanding (or maybe just a reminder) of the nature of
the problem of student ownership in comp classrooms. 

Ownership is, at its heart, an institutional(ized) stance. We should
remember that "ownership" is an institutionally constructed thing, which is
meaningless and useless without mediating structures that make such a
distinction useful and necessary in the academy. Does it matter who owns
writing courses if the accoutrements that the institution and culture grant
with ownership didn't provide certain things worth owning (and I use that
capitalist-laden term consciously since it often means an exclusive right or
privilege, such as a copyright)? Can we not imagine an educational
environment in which there are no turfs and no ownership, instead communal
landscapes of learning and growth, sharing and collaboration? Ah but our
cynical, capitalist, and postmodern society and many of us (maybe), in fact,
know better. This kind of education smacks of 60s hippies and "happenings"
-- failed projects that were too "touchy feely" to do the hard work of
academia (we're wiser than these things now, or are we?). Or maybe the
systems we work in, and that define our enterprises, our courses, our
pedagogies even, sabotage such ideas and projects?  

Ownership, then, is a metaphor we're using to describe something else that
we want of or for our students, something many students may simply not be
ready for. Or, more to my point, our students may not be ABLE to inhabit a
stance of ownership in their writing or the writing courses they must take
because of institutional demands. So I see this primarily not as a student
ownership problem, but as an institutional ownership definition problem -- a
structural problem. Do our educational institutions and systems really allow
for student ownership? I'm thinking of NCLB and the ways in which our
students are thoroughly indoctrinated into particular behaviors toward
writing, and the ways schools and classrooms, culture and society, place
academia and its pursuits in opposition to other things (possibly more
attractive things to them and most others). I'm thinking of the ways in
which our students come to us with various stances toward knowledge,
language, and learning that they get from other valid spheres of existence
-- "ordinary" ones, ones that Raymond Williams almost half a century ago
said were worth academia's attention and respect (I do not mean to set up a
strict binary here: ordinary culture and writing vs. academic culture and
writing). I'm also thinking of that interesting discussion on the WPA-L
about Rebekah Nathan's book, _My Freshman Year_ and how students do not
discuss course ideas in their typical social settings. All these things
structure the limits of behavior, and thus learning, in our classrooms, as
much as course and graduation requirements do. 

So, if we want student ownership of writing and writing courses, which I
think we do because that leads to more critical and engaged citizens, then
it's less about tweaking syllabi and course goals (although these things are
important), and more about making societal and institutional changes to
education. Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating a completely structural
critique of writing instruction and society. There is agency in all this. We
have students who actively resist these pressures in productive and less
than productive ways, maybe we (comp teachers) are prime examples of what is
possible for these students and what counter-hegemonic work can do for
people and society. I think there is also room for some students to conform,
to go along with hegemonic positions and institutions in some sense, yet
still see these self-conscious choices as agency. But I also don't want to
set up the comp classroom (or comp teachers) as spaces and people in which
counter-hegemony, counter-culture, and counter-institutional thinking live
only or exclusively, nor do I want to pretend that the comp teacher is a
savior who creates spaces that "save" students, spaces where students are to
be magically transformed into "better" human beings because they've become
"enlightened" to their "false-consciousness" and blind ways. No. I'm saying
that we should consider a homeopathic or holistic and source-treating remedy
to this "problem" of ownership -- which I've not detached from any agents --
rather than an allopathic one, or a reactionary one that treats symptoms
(which end up being agents in the system) and surface disturbances (to the
system). 

My 4 cents on a Easter/Passover weekend. Peace.

-- Asao
 
-----------------------------
Asao B. Inoue
Assistant Professor
Department of English Language and Literature
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: teaching_composition-admin@mailman.eppg.com
[mailto:teaching_composition-admin@mailman.eppg.com] On Behalf Of The Teach
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 12:38 AM
To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
Subject: Re: [Teaching_Composition] Agency, Advocacy and Advancing Writing
*hello*

<snip>
> But there's another question of ownership that I haven't really touched 
> upon, and that's the students' ownership, or one might say, investment, 
> in the writing.  This is the hardest question of all, because it makes 
> us look very closely at assignments as varied as the "personal literacy 
> narrative" and the "longer researched essay" to try to find ways to make 
> them more meaningful to students lives and careers, academic and 
> professional....
<snip>
> portfolios, but I don't think we're there.  Reading the student 
> evaluation comments at the end of each semester, I still see very mixed 
> results in the area of relevance and ownership.

Michael, your question is a critical one..."the" critical one.  How do we 
get students to take ownership and realize they should have an "investment 
in the writing"? All too often students view the first year composition 
courses as dreaded requirements.  They do not see these courses as a means 
to help them in later courses.  Part of their resistance is fear, I think. 
Fear of failure. They have not enjoyed writing in the past; they do not 
want to write in a prescribed manner; they see little value in exploring 
topics unknown to them.  Now this is not every student, and certainly 
there are the reluctant, resisting student who "sees the light" and begins 
to enjoy writing.  Yet I have begun with entire classes who raise their 
hands as a no vote when I ask if the really want to be in a composition 
class.

alex
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