The relevance of English : teaching that matters in students' lives

453 Pages·2012·4.3 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 463 552 CS 510 949
AUTHOR Yagelski, Robert P., Ed.; Leonard, Scott A., Ed.
TITLE The Relevance of English: Teaching That Matters in Students'
Lives. Refiguring English Studies.
INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL.
ISBN ISBN-0-8141-3989-2
ISSN ISSN-1073-9637
PUB DATE 2002-00-00
NOTE 452p.; A volume in the Refiguring English Studies series.
AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon
Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 39892-1659: $34.95
members, $44.95 nonmembers). Tel: [phone] (Toll Free);
Web site: http://www.ncte.org.
PUB TYPE Books (010) Collected Works General (020) Opinion
Papers (120)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC19 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Business; Curriculum Development; Economics; *English
Instruction; English Teachers; Futures (of Society); Higher
Education; *Literacy; *Relevance (Education); Secondary
Education; Technological Advancement
IDENTIFIERS African Americans; Critical Literacy
ABSTRACT
An effort to contribute to the "story" of English teaching
in the United States at the dawn of the new millennium, this book presents 17
essays that tell diverse and complex stories of the value and difficulty of
teaching English. The voices in this volume represent an eclectic rather than
a comprehensive group of teachers and scholars, some familiar, some perhaps
less so, who draw from their experiences in secondary and postsecondary
English classrooms to examine the question of the relevance of their work to
the lives of their students. After an introduction: "The (Ir)relevance of
English at the Turn of the Millennium" (Robert P. Yagelski), essays in
Section I, Contexts: American Culture and the Study of English, are: (1) "The
Academic Language Gap" (Gerald Graff); (2) "When the Multicultural Leaves the
Race: Some Common Terms Reconsidered" (Victor Villanueva); (3) "It's Not an
Economy, Stupid! The Education-as-Product Metaphor as Viewed from the English
Classroom" (Scott A. Leonard); (4) "Literacy, Gender, and Adolescence:
School-Sponsored English as Identity Maintenance" (Margaret J. Finders); (5)
"On the Business of English Studies" (Stephen M. North); and "Exchange:
Economies, Politics, and English Studies" (Finders, North, Leonard, and
Villanueva) . Essays in Section II, Changes: English Classrooms in an Evolving
World, are: (6) "The High School English Teacher: A Relevant Member in a Good
Tribe" (Donald L. Tinney); (7) "Promoting a Relevant Classroom Literacy:
Personal Growth and Communal Action in a Middle Grades Curricular Development
Project" (Sarah Robbins, with Mary Miesiaszek and Beth Davis); (8) "Women in
Mind: The Culture of First-Year English and the Nontraditional Returning
Woman Student" (Patricia Shelley Fox); (9) "Community College English:
Diverse Backgrounds, Diverse Needs" (Kathleen R. Cheney); (10) "The Relevance
of Paulo Freire on Liberatory Dialogue and Writing in the Classroom"
(Christina Kirklighter); (11) "Surviving Intact: African American Women
Negotiating Scholarly Identities through Graduate School Writing" (Juanita
Rodgers Comfort); and "Exchange: Literacy, Classrooms, and Students' Lives"
(Fox, Tinney, Kirklighter, Cheney, Robbins, Comfort) . Essays in Section III,
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
Futures: English Studies for the New Millennium, are: (12) "The Future of
English Studies Made Personal, or, The Subversive Act of Teaching Well"
(Valerie Hardin Drye); (13) "Cybrarians and Scholars in the New English
Classroom" (Ted Nellen); (14) "The Past and Future of (Two-Year) College
English Studies" (Mark Reynolds); (15) "Enacting Cultures: The Practice of
Comparative Cultural Study" (Paula Mathieu and James J. Sosnoski); (16)
"Critical Technological Literacy and English Studies: Teaching, Learning, and
Action" (Richard J. Selfe and Cynthia L. Selfe); (17) "The Plural Commons:
Meeting the Future of English Studies" (Kathleen Blake Yancey); and
"Exchange: Language, Technology, and the Future of English Studies" (Drye,
Reynolds, Mathieu, Sosnoski, R. Selfe, and Yancey). Contains an afterword by
Richard M. Ohmann. (RS)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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Refiguring English Studies provides a forum for
Refiguring
scholarship on English studies as a discipline, a pro-
ENGLISH
fession, and a vocation. To that end, the series pub-
lishes historical work that considers the ways in
STUDIES I
which English studies has constructed itself and its
objects of study; investigations of the relationships among its con-
stituent parts as conceived in both disciplinary and institutional terms;
and examinations of the role the discipline has played or should
play in the larger society and public policy. In addition, the series
seeks to feature studies that, by their form or focus, challenge our
notions about how the written "work" of English can or should be
done and to feature writings that represent the professional lives of
the discipline's members in both traditional and nontraditional set-
tings. The series also includes scholarship that considers the
discipline's possible futures or that draws upon work in other disci-
plines to shed light on developments in English studies.
Volumes in the Series
David B. Downing, editor, Changing Classroom Practices: Resources
for Literary and Cultural Studies (1994)
Jed Rasula, The American Poetry Wax Museum: Reality Effects,
1940-1990 (1995)
James A. Berlin, Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring Col-
lege English Studies (1996)
Robin Varnum, Fencing with Words: A History of Writing Instruc-
tion at Amherst College during the Era of Theodore Baird,
1938-1966 (1996)
Jane Maher, Mina P. Shaughnessy: Her Life and Work (1997)
Michael Blitz and C. Mark Hurlbert, Letters for the Living: Teach-
ing Writing in a Violent Age (1998)
Bruce Homer and Min-Zhan Lu, Representing the "Other": Basic
Writers and the Teaching of Basic Writing (1999)
Stephen M. North, with Barbara A. Chepaitis, David Coogan, Lile
Davidson, Ron MacLean, Cindy L. Parrish, Jonathan Post, and
Beth Weatherby, Refiguring the Ph.D. in English Studies: Writ-
ing, Doctoral Education, and the Fusion-Based Curriculum
(2000)
Stephen Parks, Class Politics: The Movement for the Students' Right
to Their Own Language (2000)
Charles M. Anderson and Marian M. Mac Curdy, Writing and Heal-
ing: Toward an Informed Practice (2000)
Anne J. Herrington and Marcia Curtis, Persons in Process: Four
Stories of Writing and Personal Development in College (2000)
Amy Lee, Composing Critical Pedagogies: Teaching Writing as Re-
vision (2000)
Derek Owens, Composition and Sustainability: Teaching for a Threat-
ened Generation (2001)
Chris W. Gallagher, Radical Departures: Composition and Progres-
sive Pedagogy (2002)
The Relevance of English
Teaching That Matters in Students' Lives
Edited by
ROBERT P. YAGELSKI
University at Albany, State University of New York
SCOTT A. LEONARD
Youngstown State University
National Council of Teachers of English
1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096
5
NCTE EDITORIAL BOARD: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Willie Mae
Crews, Colleen Fairbanks, Andrea Lunsford, Gerald R. Og lan, Jackie
Swensson, Gail Wood, Zarina M. Hock, Chair, ex officio, Kent
Williamson, ex officio, Kurt Austin, ex officio
Staff Editor: Tom Tiller
Interior Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf
Cover Design: Pat Mayer
NCTE Stock Number: 39892-3050
©2002 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans-
mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including pho-
tocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
from the copyright holder. Printed in the United States of America.
It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a
forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teach-
ing of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular
point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the
Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of
policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.
Although every attempt is made to ensure accuracy at the time of publication,
NCTE cannot guarantee that all published addresses for electronic mail or
Web sites are current.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The relevance of English : teaching that matters in students' lives /
edited by Robert P. Yagelski, Scott A. Leonard.
p. cm. (Refiguring English studies, ISSN 1073-9637)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8141-3989-2 (pbk.)
1. English philologyStudy and teaching (Higher)United States. 2. En-
glish philologyStudy and teaching (Secondary)United States. 3. En-
glish philologyStudy and teaching (Higher)Social aspectsUnited States.
4. English philologyStudy and teaching (Secondary)Social aspects
United States. I. Yagelski, Robert. II. Leonard, Scott A., 1958 III. Series.
PE68 .U5 R38 2002
420'.71'173dc21
2002000866
6
For my parents, Ron and Joan Yagelski,
who enabled me to find relevance in my life.
RPY
For my parents, brothers, and sister,
for their faith, love, and encouragement.
SAL
7
CONTENTS
PREFACE Xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XV
INTRODUCTION
The arkelevance of English at the Turn of the Millennium
Robert P. Yagelski 1
I Contexts: American Culture and the Study of English
1 The Academic Language Gap
Gerald Graff 23
2 When the Multicultural Leaves the Race: Some Common
7erms Reconsidered
Victor Villanueva 36
3 It's Not an Economy, Stupid! The Education-as-Product
Metaphor as Viewed from the English Classroom
Scott A. Leonard 52
4 Literacy, Gender, and Adolescence: School-Sponsored
English as Identity Maintenance
Margaret J. Finders 82
5 On the Business of English Studies
Stephen M. North 105
Exchange: Economies, Politics, and English Studies
Finders, North, Leonard, and Villanueva 127
11 Changes: English Classrooms in an Evolving World
6 The High School English Teacher: A Relevant Member in
a Good Tribe
Donald L. Tinney 143
Contents
7 Promoting a Relevant Classroom Literacy: Personal
Growth and Communal Action in a Middle Grades
Curricular Development Project
Sarah Robbins, with Mary Miesiaszek and Beth Davis 157
8 Women in Mind: The Culture of First-Year English and
the Nontraditional Returning Woman Student
Patricia Shelley Fox 183
9 Community College English: Diverse Backgrounds,
Diverse Needs
Kathleen R. Cheney 204
10 The Relevance of Paulo Freire on Liberatory Dialogue
and Writing in the Classroom
Cristina Kirklighter 221
11 Surviving Intact: African American Women Negotiating
Scholarly Identities through Graduate School Writing
Juanita Rodgers Comfort 235
Exchange: Literacy, Classrooms, and Students' Lives
Fox, Tinney, Kirklighter, Cheney, Robbins, Comfort 257
1111 Futures: English Studies for the New Millennium
12 The Future of English Studies Made Personal, or, The
Subversive Act of Teaching Well
Valerie Hardin Drye 277
13 Cybrarians and Scholars in the New English Classroom
Ted Nellen 298
14 The Past and Future of (Two-Year) College English Studies
Mark Reynolds 307
15 Enacting Cultures: The Practice of Comparative Cultural
Study
Paula Mathieu and James J. Sosnoski 324
16 Critical Technological Literacy and English Studies:
7eaching, Learning, and Action
Richard J. Selfe and Cynthia L. Selfe 344
17 The Plural Commons: Meeting the Future of English Studies
Kathleen Blake Yancey 382
viii
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