Yesterday was the first day of a new semester for me at LCCC. I love teaching there, and I feel incredibly lucky to have a position while I complete my graduate studies. Disconcertingly, there are plenty of unemployed PhDs in the market for any position, even an adjunct position such as mine. The fact that I have a job (let alone three!) makes me feel luckier than I already do when I look at my beautiful family. I've been teaching for two years and going to graduate school for almost as long, so now that I have some perspective, however minimal, I feel that I can do a bit of pedagogical self-reflection.
Because I attended LCCC as a student and I am from the area, I often see a lot of familiar faces in my classroom. Be it old coworkers, people from one of my multiple social circles (that sounds a bit more pretentious than I mean it to, but it is worth noting, as you shall see), or brothers and sisters of former classmates/friends, I have a hard time being unrecognized. I have even had students recognize me because I have worked in the service industry for so long that I have waited on them one time or many. My previous familiarity with my students (or, rather, their familiarity with me) upon first entering the classroom is significant because it does not allow me to easily maintain the fragmentation of self often necessary to uphold an aura of professionalism (if not authority). While I am still the same person, my behavior in the classroom is almost dichotomous to my personality when tending bar or even just drinking at one. By the same token, I act differently depending on which group of friends/acquaintances I happen to be around.
This is the something of the same problem that I have with Facebook. Even though I keep up with Facebook (probably too much) and post often (but not as much as some people--you know who you are), I find the general concept of social networking problematic because it forces one to unify his or her fragmented self and enter into the same type of discourse with everyone. I don't talk to the Ev in the same manner that I talk to a good friend's wife or one of my professors (in fact, I often don't talk to the Ev in any way that could be deemed appropriate), but when I publish something online, I must take all of those who can see my profile into account. Some of you don't have this problem (again, you know who you are), and I envy your disregard. This is less of a complaint than a recognition that I celebrate the individual components of my personality that make up my entire self. I appreciate the fragmentation. This appreciation is evident if one looks at the multiple subjects of this blog. In its archive you have Zach the teacher, Zach the poker player, Zach the family man, etc. I don't want to get off on an internet rant, so in order to bring this back to education, let me outline (albeit briefly) my situatedness in composition pedagogy.
Not many would argue that the act of composing involves a process, no matter how involved or intricate. I have no qualms with this notion; however, what I do have a problem with is the assertion that any one type of composing process can simply be prescribed for every writer. For example, many in my field often teach the composing process as follows: prewrite (generate ideas), draft, revise, and edit. Granted, many recognize the recursive nature of such a process, teaching students not to follow the steps in that exact order and offering examples of when it might be necessary to revisit a step in the process; however, I want to take the writing process further in my classroom, which is why I find myself located in the currently ongoing post-process movement.
Post-process is a product of postmodernism. Postmodernism can be summed up as a skepticism if not disavowal of all grand narratives. It is the recognition that one cannot make everything fit into a certain structure. The postmodern scientist, for example, would have no problem with the platypus. He would appreciate its complexity without trying to give it a strict classification. Postmodernism is a much more complex theory than this simple explanation gives it credit. In fact, its very nature often defies explanation (an exceedingly frustrating characteristic for one in my position, as you can imagine). However, I hope my very brief description offers a glimpse of how it aid the evolution of composition pedagogy when it comes to teaching the writing process. Rather than simply providing my all of my students with the same series of "steps" to follow, I want to give them the perception necessary to recognize that their writing is situated, public, and interpretative.
By situated, public, and interpretative, I mean that I want my students to recognize their "place" in the communication of their ideas and how others will receive them. Students need to do some "hermeneutic guesswork," to borrow Thomas Kent's term, in order to interpret how their audience will perceive their compositions. Students also need to discover not only what they think but why they think it. They need to realize what factors (gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, politics, religion, etc.) have allowed (or forced) them to come to the conclusions they have. Doing so can also help them to realize how their ideas are perceived by others who have been influenced by those same types of factors.
Communication is an inherently social act, but that does not mean that we cannot celebrate the individual within the social dynamic. In the post-process movement, there should be a celebration of difference and diversity in student writing (not just the acceptance or tolerance of it). All papers should not look the same. Students in higher education are responsible for their own educations, but it is the responsibility of the faculty to facilitate that learning by fostering the type of critical thinking mentioned above. During that process (yes, I recognize the implicit irony in my choice of that word), educators can relinquish a bit of authority, sheath our red pens, and celebrate the rough draft because that is where real idea generation occurs.
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