Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture recent issues

A Note from the Editors

Holberg, J. L., Taylor, M. — 2008-09-03

Guest Editor's Introduction: Teaching to the Choir

Schneider, B. — 2008-09-03

Teaching Circles: Supporting Shared Work and Professional Development

Marshall, M. J. — 2008-09-03

This essay describes and critiques the creation and evolution of Teaching Circles, small groups of teachers meeting regularly to discuss curriculum and pedagogy, as a vehicle for teacher development in the composition program at the University of Miami. Included in the essay are comments from several of the full-time lecturers who participated in these discussion groups as both members and leaders. The essay makes visible the competing tensions inherent in fostering professional development through such a structure, especially the complications involved in turning lecturers into teacher educators as they take on responsibility for mentoring beginning teachers. The essay and the comments from the lecturers note the challenges inherent in making such an institutional structure productive over time and suggest that sustained critical reflection, willingness to revise, and attention to the scholarship of teaching teachers are important components of keeping any structure of professional development relevant.

Writing Program Administration and Faculty Professional Development: Which Faculty? What Development?

Willard-Traub, M. K. — 2008-09-03

The author considers faculty development and its potential relationship to the ethos of collaborative practice modeled both by critical (Freirean) pedagogy and by interdisciplinary research. As a primary concern for any academic administrator, faculty development is not only a teaching moment but also an opportunity for reciprocal exchange, learning, and knowledge production, allowing participants to challenge the received wisdom of their fields and to come to a more rhetorical understanding of their identities. The collaborative construction of new knowledge and an emerging understanding of identities are examined in the context of two professional development and administrative contexts: the assessment by faculty of the writing of entering, first-year students and a collegewide, first-year experience (learning-community) initiative.

The In-House Conference: A Strategy for Disrupting Order and Shifting Identities

Daniell, B., Davis, L., Stewart, L., Taber, E. — 2008-09-03

The first-year writing program at Kennesaw State University has found its in-house conference (IHC) to be an important venue for faculty development. Based on the assumption that teachers actually know what they are doing, the IHC invites teachers of all ranks to propose a presentation on a selected topic and then to present those papers at conference sessions that other teachers attend. The IHC invites part-time faculty into the community, generates intellectual conversation about teaching across the lines of rank and hierarchy, allows the conversation to continue long after the conference since participants can see each other daily, and invites reflection on and modification of teaching. The success of the IHC serves as a reminder that some faculty development should be discipline-specific and local. In addition, the IHC asks teachers of writing to actually write themselves and allows them the opportunity for scholarship. The professional development that the IHC offers is not, however, limited to a writing program but can be used to stimulate intellectual engagement across the English department and, beyond that, to other departments across the university.

Rhetoricians, Facilitators, Models: Interviews with Technology Trainers

Sidler, M. — 2008-09-03

With the importance of online research, writing, and communication, computers are increasingly vital to instruction within the humanities. To help prepare teachers and administrators who engage with computerized instruction, this article examines faculty development through the lens of technology training by reporting on issues and concerns expressed by twelve technology trainers in a series of interviews. The interviewees provided their experiences and advice, including ways to approach institutional challenges, faculty participation, and pedagogical integrity. Most importantly, the author argues that technology training is a complex rhetorical activity involving a strong sense of kairos, context, and audience.

The Dynamics of Teacher Development: Negotiating Where We Stand

Kinzy, D., Minter, D. — 2008-09-03

This essay explores the underlying dynamics that inform postsecondary English teacher development efforts. In particular, it argues for a more expansive understanding of "context" in order to emphasize the inevitability of conflict and the productive potential of surfacing the meaningful contextual differences of our teaching lives. Such differences include varying philosophies of teaching and learning, competing motivations and expectations for participation in teacher development, and differing institutional teaching contexts where very different values might inhere. The essay offers strategies for engaging such differences with a view toward discerning collective (as well as individual) commitments. Such an orientation toward teacher development is crucial in the current climate, where plans for reform increasingly locate the work of remaking higher education outside of postsecondary classrooms. The kind of postsecondary teacher development work this essay calls for, then, seeks to support teachers' growth as agents of educational change.

Interdisciplinary Work as Professional Development: Changing the Culture of Teaching

Mullin, J. A. — 2008-09-03

This article explores, through the lens of a WAC faculty developer, how it is difficult to maintain disciplinary neutrality when developing any program; both teaching and learning can easily become codified through the lens of one person, field, or group. By using the work of, among others, Krista Ratcliffe, Mikhail Bakhtin, and David Bartholomae, I make a case for working differently with stakeholders: collaborating within a discipline and including students in faculty development plansas both learners and mentors. If we mutually examine our definitions ("teaching," "learning," "writing," "students") and engage in rhetorical and reflective listening, we can move away from a model of teaching as rules, templates, and regulations; we can begin to engage our own assumptions along with those of our students, changing together the very definitions that constrain the evolution of our own mutual development.

The Rhetorical Situation: Examining the Framing of Professional Development

Schneider, B. — 2008-09-03

This article considers why, in the wake of Ernest Boyer's work, the promise of a transformation of university teaching has not been broadly realized and what that implies for faculty development projects. It discusses the assumptions that place the professional development of teaching outside of disciplinary boundaries, both literally and figuratively, and considers the consequences of that placement. It then turns to the scholarship of teaching and learning, considering what it offers to and implies about the disciplinary practices it proposes to transform. In response to this examination, the essay proposes that the Boyer Report attempted to alter teaching by arguing that teachers and the systems that support them needed to change, an argument that failed to convince college faculty to change. The article concludes with the proposal that the real exigence facing college faculty is that the way students raised in a culture saturated in electronic media learn is dramatically different than the way people learned a generation ago. That shift in learning is the exigence that requires a transformation of teaching.

Writing Centers and Cross-Curricular Literacy Programs as Models for Faculty Development

Bergmann, L. S. — 2008-09-03

The books under review here envision models of professional development not as episodes of developing skills or training faculty to conform to changing laws, rules, and pet projects of administrators, but rather as collaborative processes of education and reflection that encourage faculty to rethink their practices. They draw on research in composition theory and pedagogy, suggesting that more effective learning takes place when teachers trust learners to consider their own need for knowledge, invite learners to devise variations and applications of received knowledge, and resist keeping things simple to be sure they are correct. Applying different focuses, these books consider how to put teacher-learners at the center of the process of their own professional development. Jeffrey Jablonski argues that the expertise developed in composition studies needs to be recognized and respected in initiatives to implement Cross-Curricular Literacy programs. The writers of The Everyday Writing Center consider how, in the midst of increased professionalization, to maintain the serendipitous—even carnivalesque, at times—learning and teaching that the intimate and nonhierarchical space of a writing center can foster. And the collective wisdom in The Writing Center Director's Resource Book surveys the current state of writing center theory and practice, providing a reflective guide for developing the expertise of writing center administrators, who are (or could be) leaders in campus faculty development efforts.

Cautionary Tales: Ideals and Realities in Twenty-First-Century Higher Education

Donahue, T. — 2008-09-03

It has become increasingly clear that U.S. faculty cannot afford to remain insular about global issues in teaching and the forces that are shaping them. At the same time, our desire to address or resist those issues, to join in or to find alternatives, needs to be contextualized. The three edited collections reviewed here address globalization of higher education in Australia, writing instruction in higher education in the United Kingdom, and interdisciplinary collaboration in U.S. higher education. The three bring different perspectives to current U.S. discussions of internationalization and interdisciplinary work in higher education and allow us to better understand issues in other cultures and disciplines while critically examining our own through new lenses.

Faculty Development in English Studies: An Overview of Resources and a Suggested Sequence

Blalock, G. — 2008-09-03

This overview of resources for faculty development initiatives in Englishstudies proposes a specific framework and sequence for faculty development work and identifies and annotates key resources. It proposes that the sequence for should take place within the theoretical framework of the learning paradigm, introduces faculty to the science of learning and teaching for significant learning, engages faculty in the scholarship of teaching and learning, and focuses on ways to create and maintain communities of practice and knowledge. Work on this overview initiated the development of an interactive Web-based clearinghouse devoted to the ongoing gathering and sharing of faculty development resources.

Contributors

2008-09-03

Editors' Introduction

Holberg, J. L., Taylor, M. — 2008-04-11

Teaching and Presence

Farber, J. — 2008-04-11

This essay argues that presence—the condition of being fully present in the classroom to students and to oneself—is an essential element in good teaching. The essay identifies major obstacles to presence and explores means of achieving it.

National Narratives and the Politics of Inclusion: Historicizing American Literature Anthologies

Lockard, J., Sandell, J. — 2008-04-11

This essay discusses the history of American literature anthologies from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century; examines their racial and gender inclusions and exclusions; and argues that literary anthologies have played an important role in the production of the American, and more recently multicultural, national narrative.

Service Learning, Multiculturalism, and the Pedagogies of Difference

Jay, G. — 2008-04-11

This essay argues that a pedagogy of "dialogue across differences" should be infused into the core curriculum and function as the link joining multicultural education to service learning. Close examination of student reflections and journal writings reveals how such dialogue can enhance learning, strengthen community partnerships, and enrich antiracist pedagogy.

What Should We Do with Postprocess Theory?

Heard, M. — 2008-04-11

The question guiding "What Should We Do with Postprocess Theory?" is one of praxis: postprocess theory has articulated an advanced and promising theory of rhetoric in action, but few attempts have been made to develop a postprocess pedagogy. This article suggests several ways that postprocess ideals can be adapted to existing teaching strategies.

The Writing Community: A New Model for the Creative Writing Classroom

Blythe, H., Sweet, C. — 2008-04-11

After creating a taxonomy of classroom approaches to the teaching of creative writing, the authors discuss a current practice they have employed, the writing community. The authors detail its success, place it within current pedagogical research into small-group and team-based learning, and suggest possible applications to allied fields.

Tutoring Is Real: The Benefits of the Peer Tutor Experience for Future English Educators

Alsup, J., Conard-Salvo, T., Peters, S. J. — 2008-04-11

In this article, an English education professor, a university writing center administrator, and a recent graduate of an undergraduate English education program discuss the role peer tutoring might play in enhancing the education of preservice teachers of writing. The authors argue that by providing additional, authentic field experiences which reflect constructivist, student-centered philosophies often adhered to in English education programs, university peer tutoring can provide undergraduate students with authentic experience in learning collaboratively, developing rapport with students, and conducting student-centered, one-to-one writing conferences.

Vectoring Genre and Character: A Pedagogical Model for Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and Other Multigeneric Texts

Pugh, T. — 2008-04-11

Troilus and Criseyde is a work of magnificent scope and intimidating breadth. A strategy that I have found effective for addressing the potentially overwhelming pedagogical task of teaching this masterpiece is to ask students to analyze the relationships between genre and character. Through this process, I encourage students to engage in vectored analysis, which I describe as the examination of a text from at least two converging yet separate perspectives. Encouraging students to examine literature from complementary and vectoring perspectives enables them to make the cognitive leap from a static analysis of one issue to a more vibrant exploration of textual interplay. Vectored analysis provides a pedagogical foundation for students of all abilities to approach multigeneric texts and to reach deeper insights about them. In this essay, I demonstrate this approach with Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, but it could be readily reformulated for a range of multigeneric texts.

If They Say Academic Writing Is Too Hard, I Say Read Graff and Birkenstein

Grow, L. M. — 2008-04-11

They Say, "Templates Are the Way to Teach Writing"; I Say, "Use with Extreme Caution"

Benay, P. — 2008-04-11

War of the Left Worlds

Marsh, J. — 2008-04-11

A Pragmatic Approach to Women's Rhetoric

Carter, S. — 2008-04-11

The Lesson of the Line: A Parable for Travelers of the Tenure Track

Wandless, W. H. — 2008-04-11

Contributors

2008-04-11

Editors' Introduction: To What End?

Holberg, J. L., Taylor, M. — 2007-12-31

Why Read Reading Lolita? Teaching Critical Thinking in a Culture of Choice

Hay, S. — 2007-12-31

Both Azar Nafisi's and Mark Edmundson's recent books argue that the study of literature teaches a socially crucial set of critical thinking skills. But both take as dogma a liberal-capitalist framework and thus fail as models for how students can learn to think in genuinely critical ways.

Teach the University

Williams, J. J. — 2007-12-31

In the face of bleak circumstances facing academe, Jeffrey J. Williams calls for us to "Teach the university!" It is particularly relevant to our students, who are its future constituents, and it is a fitting topic centering on the tradition of the humanities. He urges that we should teach not only academic fiction or well-known "ideas of the university," but the combination of history, theory, fiction, and film, and other data on the university.

At the Interstices: Postcolonial Literary Studies Meets International Relations

Tremonte, C. M., Racioppi, L. — 2007-12-31

This article investigates the challenges of interdisciplinary teaching that crosses the fields of postcolonial literary studies and international relations. Interdisciplinary courses demand that teachers be able to comprehend, translate, and represent different disciplines' theories and epistemologies, and their interactions, in a flexible and syncretic manner.

"Russia is not in Rhode Island": Wikitravel in the Digital Writing Classroom

Pennell, M. — 2007-12-31

This essay explores the potential for wikis in English classrooms and writing pedagogy through discussion of a class project involving Wikitravel. Topics include the influence that wikis have on collaboration, an example of networked writing, and the role of writing with technology in knowledge creation.

Out of the Ivory Tower Endlessly Rocking: Collaborating across Disciplines and Professions to Promote Student Learning in the Digital Archive

Norcia, M. A. — 2007-12-31

This article shows how digital archives can enrich the humanities classroom; I trace the collaborative creation of "I Remain": A Digital Archive of Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera at Lehigh University, demonstrating how the archive engaged students' different learning styles, causing them to interrogate the way history is represented and processed.

Critical Reception and Cultural Capital: Edith Wharton as a Short Story Writer

Totten, G. — 2007-12-31

Edith Wharton's lack of recognition as a short story writer depends on several factors, including conflicting theories about short story form and technique, her relationship to literary and cultural history, and her use in literature classrooms. Her problematic relationship to the short story form provides an important case study in critical reception and canon formation.

Confronting Terrorism: Teaching the History of Lynching through Photography

Cooks, B. R. — 2007-12-31

Cooks describes how she incorporates her personal experience viewing Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, a traveling exhibit from 2000 to 2005, in her art history and ethics studies classes. For the purpose of analysis alone, she divides the photographs into four categories: crowd, crowd with lynching victim(s), lynching victim(s) alone, and souvenirs. Students respond in speechless and somber disbelief when confronted with the shameless desire to document and openly celebrate the destruction of the human body. However, the lynching photographs (four of which are included in the essay) are a catalyst for a complex system of varied responses beyond the immediate paralyzing effect.

The history of lynching and the continued threat of racial violence are difficult subjects to teach, but the engagement with this history through lynching imagery and the exhibition history of Without Sanctuary has proven to be an important life experience for both Cooks and her students.

The Importance of Storytelling: Students and Teachers Respond to September 11

Rosenberg, R. — 2007-12-31

Mind the Gap: Teaching Othello through Creative Responses

Mills, D. — 2007-12-31

Teaching Native American Literature: Inviting Students to See the World through Indigenous Lenses

Zitzer-Comfort, C. — 2007-12-31

Learning to Transgress: Embedded Pedagogies of the Gothic

Wellington, J. — 2007-12-31

A Note from the Associate Editor

Long, M. C. — 2007-12-31

This collaboratively written essay offers an account of a group of graduate students preparing to teach a literature course at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The students, guided by their professor, Dale Bauer, immerse themselves in current debates about teaching by reading Patrick Allitt's I'm the Teacher, You're the Student, Shari Stenberg's Professing and Pedagogy, Paul Kameen's Writing/Teaching, Gerald Graff's Clueless in Academe, and one textbook, Mariolina Salvatori and Pat Donahue's The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty. The essay references a range of additional writing on the college and university classroom—including works by bell hooks, Ira Shor, Jane Tompkins, and Elaine Showalter. The essay includes excerpts from teaching statements the students composed as they worked through the current debates in literature pedagogy.

Forging a Pedagogical Community

2007-12-31

Curating the Pedagogical Scene

Lee, M. — 2007-12-31

The Disciplinarity of Rhetoric

Tombro, M. — 2007-12-31

Contributors

2007-12-31

Call for Submissions from Undergraduate Researchers

2007-12-31

A Note from the Editors

Holberg, J. L., Taylor, M. — 2007-09-18

Guest Editors' Introduction

Knights, B., King, N. — 2007-09-18

A Note on the U.K. Context

Knights, B. — 2007-09-18

The CAPITAL Centre: Teaching Shakespeare (and More) through a Collaboration between a University and an Arts Organization

Bate, J., Brock, S. — 2007-09-18

Ecocriticism and Education for Sustainability

Garrard, G. — 2007-09-18

Reading beyond Words: Sound and Gesture in The Winter's Tale

King, R. — 2007-09-18

Crossing Liminal Spaces: Teaching the Postcolonial Gothic

Wisker, G. — 2007-09-18

A Desk and a Pile of Books: Considering Independent Study

Green, A. — 2007-09-18

Explaining the Actions of Men and Gods: Elements of English Pedagogy

Hardcastle, J. — 2007-09-18

Some Notes on a Project: Democracy and Authority in the Production of a Discipline

Bruce, S., Jones, K., McLean, M. — 2007-09-18

Creative Writing as a Site of Pedagogic Identity and Pedagogic Learning

O'Rourke, R. — 2007-09-18

In Virtuality Veritas

Mort, G., Horsley, L. — 2007-09-18

Technique and Technology: Electronic Voting Systems in an English Literature Lecture

Jenkins, A. — 2007-09-18

Helicopters, Jigsaws, and Plaits: Revealing the Hidden Language and Literature Curriculum

Day, H. — 2007-09-18

Toward Criteria for Creative Assessment in the English Honors Degree Program

Coote, L., Wright, F. — 2007-09-18

Taking the Imaginative Leap: Creative Writing and Inquiry-Based Learning

van Oostrum, D., Steadman-Jones, R., Carson, Z. — 2007-09-18

Contributors

2007-09-18