James Berlin describes the major pedagogical theories of composition, which include Classicist, Current-traditionalists, Expressionists and New Rhetoricians. Berlin is an advocate of the latter theory and describes this as a theory that embraces the changing nature of rhetoric in the face of political, social and economic forces that shape accepted knowledge.
The writings of James Berlin greatly affected my course design. I believe that my teaching philosophy falls under the title of social-epistemic rhetoric, which Berlin advocates as a form of New Rhetoric. According to this theory rhetoric is a political action involving the interactions between the material world, discourse community and writer. My course assignments attempt to have students question the role of politics in knowledge creation, and to see how this can affect composition.
Praxis is described as practicing theory. I encountered the term in an article by Ira Shor. Shor discusses praxis in the teaching of critical thinking and explains that critical thinking is a theory in practice (praxis) that takes input from the students and creates dialogue and reflection. One of my mission statements is to practice theory that encourages critical thinking.
Marginalization occurs frequently in academia. Paulo Freire writes about marginalization in his article on the banking concept. In the banking concept the student is viewed as an empty vessel to be filled with the knowledge of the teacher. This style of pedagogy marginalizes the student by making them subordinate to the teacher who expects the student to memorize and then regurgitate the information that has been chosen by the dominant culture without analysis or reflection.
I have attempted to create a syllabus that can change with the interests of the students and recognize individual experience in the making of meaning. This is an attempt to ensure that knowledge creation is a collaborative process between student and student and teacher and students.
Post-process theory occurred as a reaction to the process movement within composition. Post-process denies the ability to teach a set of steps or mechanical techniques that will result in "good" writing. There is no post-process pedagogy, since much of post-process scholarship focuses on criticisms of process theory. According to Kastman-Breuch, post-process theory advocates increased student involvement and dialogue. The post-process idea of writing as public influenced my syllabus and resulted in a focus on peer dialogue.
Expressive writing is part of the expressionist or neo-platonic theory of composition. According to this theory, truth is based on personal understanding of sensory experiences, and writing cannot convey truth, but merely remove error. I attempted to distance myself from this theory except where it overlaps with social-epistemic rhetoric. The expressionist theory places the existence of truth in the individual, and therefore underplays the role of politics and other factors in the construction of truth.
I appreciate your goal of creating a syllabus that can 'change with the interests of the students'. It is a shame that students are ever perceived as empty vessels as they come to class with a wealth of knowledge and experience. When we tell students or youth that they need to know what we tell them or that they are not learning how we want them to, they can essentially live 'down' to our expectations.
ReplyDeleteI first learned about blogging a few years ago from one of my students. I didn't know what it was prior to that. When I first got an iPhone, I didn't know how to turn the sound off, but keep the phone on and one of my students showed me where the little button was on the side of the phone. I had a student demonstrate how to make a 'fire-fountain' in a chemistry class once. I would not have been able to do that. Students have a lot to offer and we can only hope to keep them engaged in the learning process and post-process.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteI think your emphasis on critical thinking is crucial. This is one of the most important things we teach our students. Also, I think that you will capture their interest with the collaborative elements in you syllabus.
Emily