Monday, March 10, 2008
Refining the Dissonance Blog
Okay. More clarification. In my paper, I'm exploring whether it's possible to resolve an apparent contradiction between a liberatory pedagogy and the ways writers construct identity through writing. If one constructs identity through writing, when we create assignments, do we also construct a limited number of possible identities for our students? In other words, do the assignments we require our students to complete steer them toward particular identities that they must adopt as their own in order to successfully complete the assignment? If so, can this limiting of possibilities for students be reconciled with a liberatory pedagogy? If it can be, how can it be? If it cannot be, can liberatory pedagogical practices work as they are intended to work in institutional settings with specific pedagogical parameters? These are the questions I plan to address in my paper.
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After reading this clarification, I can see how Bazerman's activity theory (article from your annotated bib) may help you resolve your question about the apparent conflict between critical pedagogy and student agency. However, it is a separate theory system from poststructural/cultural studies-based identity theory. You might be able to use both, but it will be hard in the time and space you have for a paper.
I think the readings in the critical pedagogy week will be important to consider, particularly Jeff Smith and Maxine Hairston's articles, which posit the same question you have in slightly different form.
I'm also thinking you might want to look at an article by Jim Henry: "A narratological analysis of WAC authorship" College English (56:7) Nov 1994, 810-24.
At the risk of adding one more source to your project, Henry's article focusing on the multiple subjectivities that students negotiate in the classroom. Henry uses the cultural studies framework, but it is very similar to Bazerman's activity theory description of the forces that shape the classroom.
I still think some of your sources from your annotated bib, particularly on audience and class are straying a bit from your focus on critical pedagogy and student identity/agency.
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