Overview
The word “praxis,” as it has been taken up in contemporary education scholarship (Kolb, 1984), refers to a recursive cycle in which theory informs practice and practice informs theory. The aim of this course is to provide students with a strong theoretical grounding in composition studies, the ability to connect theory to enacted pedagogy, and the reflexive stance needed to responsively refine their teaching. This course will provide a survey of the modern history of composition (1870s to present), with particular focus given on ways that teaching of composition has always been locally responsive, particularly in historically marginalized settings such as HBCUs (Gold, 2008). The historical overview will transition into a discussion of various approaches to the teaching of writing, such as critical pedagogy (Freire, 2018; Goleman, 1995), Indigenous approaches (Grande, 2004; ho‘omanawanui, 2009; King et al. 2015), process / post-process pedagogies (Kent, 1999; Matsuda, 2004), Feminist theory (hooks, 1994; Blankenship, 2019), Translanguaging approaches (Canagarajah, 2011; Horner et al., 2011), and Ecocomposition (Dobrin & Weisser, 2002; Keller & Weisser, 2007). These discussions will provide a place of departure for students as they work to develop frameworks to build their praxis as teachers.
A central concept for this course is “critical locally responsive pedagogy” (Toth, 2013), an approach to pedagogy that is committed to enacting justice and accounting for the particular needs of situated communities. The teaching of English is always situated within a web of coloniality, linguistic politics, and racism; however, the ways that those oppressive systems are instantiated are always local. As this class is taking place in Hawai‘i nei and many students will teach in Hawai‘i, a strong emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of this place through reading the works of Kanaka ‘Ōiwi scholars, such as ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui, Noenoe K. Silva, and Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua. Assignments and class discussions will work to aid students in understanding their kuleana as teachers, and how they can work to enact justice in their classrooms from that kuleana.
In addition to developing a theoretical framework for understanding composition, students in this class will also learn the practical skills necessary to teach composition at the post-secondary level. A substantial amount of this course will be focused on helping students learn how to develop teaching materials (such as syllabi, assignment sheets, and rubrics) and implement a lesson plan effectively.
Salient Questions for this include:
- How might theory inform practice and practice inform theory in the context of a composition class?
- How do local genealogies of language politics affect the dynamics of a composition classroom?
- What possibilities exist in the composition classroom for enacting commitments to justice?
- How should one’s kuleana as a teacher shape pedagogy?
Potential Assignments
Weekly reading responses (2 pages)
Kuleana narrative (5 pages)
Teaching demonstration (1-2 page lesson plan; 4 page reflection)
Syllabus (7-12 pages), assignment sheet (1-3 pages), rubric, and meta-reflection (10-12 pages)
Teaching philosophy (5 page extended version and 2 page condensed version)
*page count estimated double-spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman
Potential Texts
Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Berlin, J. (1996). Rhetorics, poetics, and cultures: Refiguring college English studies. NCTE.
Blakenship, L. (2019). Changing the subject: A theory of rhetorical empathy. Utah State University Press.
Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics Review, 2, pp. 1-28.
Dobrin, S. & Weisser, C. (2002). Breaking ground in ecocomposition: Exploring the relationship between discourse and environment. College English 65(5), 566-589.
Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 50th anniversary edition.). Bloomsbury Academic. (Original work published 1968)
Gold, D. (2008). Rhetoric at the margins revising the history of writing instruction in American colleges, 1873-1947. Southern Illinois University Press.
Goleman, J. (1995). Working theory: Critical composition studies for students and teachers. Praeger.
Grande, S. (2004). Red pedagogy: Native American social and political thought. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Gross, L. (ed) (2021). Native American rhetoric. University of New Mexico Press.
hoʻomanawanui, k. (2009). “ʻIke ʻāina: Native Hawaiian culturally-based Indigenous literacy.” Hūlili, Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-being, 5, 203-244.
Horner, B., Lu, M., Royster, J. J., & Trimbur, J. (2011). Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach. College English, 73(3), pp. 303-321.
Hum, S., Clary-Lemon, J., Vandenberg, P. (2006). Relations, locations, positions: Composition theory for writing teachers. NCTE.
Keller, C. & Weisser, C. (eds) (2007). The locations of composition. SUNY Press.
Kent, T. (ed) (1999). Post-process theory: Beyond the writing process paradigm. Southern Illinois University Press.
King, L., Gubele, R., & Anderson, J.R. (2015). Survivance, Sovereignty, and Story: Teaching American Indian Rhetorics. University Press of Colorado.
Matsuda, P. K. (2003). Process and post-process: A discursive history. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12(1), 65–83.
Oliveira, K. R. K. N., & Wright, K. (2016). Kanaka ‘Ōiwi methodologies: Mo‘olelo and metaphor. University of Hawai‘i Press.
Silva, N. K. (2017). The power of the steel-tipped pen: Reconstruction Native Hawaiian intellectual history. Duke University Press.
Tate, G., Taggart, A., Schick, K., & Hessler, B. (2013). A guide to composition pedagogies. Oxford University Press.
Toth, C. (2013). Beyond assimilation: Tribal colleges, basic writing, and the exigencies of settler colonialism. Journal of Basic Writing, 32(1), 4–36.