Mutuality in the rhetoric and composition classroom / David L. Wallace and Helen Rothschild Ewald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wallace, David L., 1960-

Contributor:

Ewald, Helen Rothschild.

Series:

Studies in writing & rhetoric

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching.

English language.

English language--Composition and exercises.

Teacher-student relationships.

Mutualism.

Physical Description:

165 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [2000]

Summary:

In Mutuality in the Rhetoric and Composition Classroom, David L. Wallace and Helen Rothschild Ewald point out the centrality of rhetoric in the academy, asserting the intimate connection between language and knowledge making. They also stress the need for a change in the roles of teachers and students in today's classroom. Their goal is mutuality, a sharing of authority among teachers and students in the classroom that would allow everyone an equal voice in the communication of ideas.

Arguing that the impetus to empower students by engaging them in liberatory and emancipatory pedagogies is simply not enough, Wallace and Ewald seek to "help readers identify, theorize, and work through problems faced by teachers who already value alternative approaches but who are struggling to implement them in the classroom." It is not the teacher's job merely to convey a received body of knowledge, nor is knowledge a prepackaged commodity to be delivered by the teacher. It is "constituted in the classroom through the dialogic interaction between teachers and students alike."

Wallace and Ewald see mutuality as potentially transformative if it is based on interaction between teachers and students. The transformative notion of mutuality, which cannot be designated in advance, can be effected in classrooms by reconstituting classroom speech genres, redesigning the architecture of rhetoric and writing courses, and valuing students' interpretive agency in classroom discourse. Mutuality in alternative pedagogy, they assert, is a continuous collaboration between teachers and students.

Contents:

1. Toward Mutuality in the Classroom: Classroom Speech Genres, Course Architecture, and Interpretive Agency 1

2. Toward Alternative Speech Genres for Classroom Discourse 31

3. Course Architecture and Mutuality in Student Writing 68

4. Interpretive Agency and Mutuality in Classroom Knowledge Making: Or, Should David Have Told His Story? 99

5. Situating Mutuality and Transforming the Discipline 131.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-160) and index.

ISBN:

0809323249

OCLC:

42667774