Teachers, discourses, and authority in the postmodern composition classroom / Xin Liu Gale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gale, Xin Liu, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching.

English language.

English language--Discourse analysis.

Report writing--Study and teaching.

Report writing.

English teachers--Training of.

English teachers.

Postmodernism.

Authority.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 201 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Examines the teacher's role and the teacher's authority in postmodern academic settings. This book is a sophisticated analysis of the teacher's role and authority in postmodern academic settings. Xin Liu Gale argues that the teacher's authority is inevitable and indispensable in effective teaching, and that, furthermore, it is necessary for "symbolic imposition." The author insists that teachers and scholars should explore how the teacher's authority functions in the pedagogic context and how it can help students develop critical literacy. Influenced by the works of Mikhail Bakhtin, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Passeron, Paulo Freire, Richard Rorty, and various poststructuralist theorists, Gale investigates the complex relationships among the teacher's and the institution's authority, the teacher's discourse(s) and social and pedagogic roles, and students' discourse(s) and diverse backgrounds. She then proposes a two-level interactional model of teaching that is based on a new discourse relationship characterized by the "edifying" role of the teacher. Xin Liu Gale is Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword by Gary A. Olson

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. The New Paradigm and the Questioning of the Traditional Teacher's Authority

Bourdieu and Passeron's Theory of the Traditional Teacher's Authority

The Changing Classroom and the Questioning of the Traditional Teacher's Authority

A Perplexing Dimension of The Teacher's Authority

3. Reconsidering the Teacher's Authority

The Institutional Authority As Necessary Evil

The Ambiguity of the Authority of Expertise and Personal Authority

4. Rethinking the Relationship of Discourses in the Classroom

Discourse As The Site Of Struggle

Rorty's Notion of Normal and Abnormal Discourse

Responsive Abnormal Discourse and Nonresponsive Abnormal Discourse

Differences Between Responsive Abnormal Discourse And Nonresponsive Abnormal Discourse

Reconceiving the Discourse Relationships in the Classroom

5. Discourse as Enabling Constraints

Lena's Story As An Indication Of The Need For Primary Interaction In The Writing Class

Changing The "Stabilized Social Audience" Through Primary Interaction

Stories About "Outsiders": Critical Consciousness Versus Critical Literacy

The Two-Level Interaction As Means To Critical Literacy

6. Edifying Teachers as Enabling Constraints

The Concept of the Edifying Teacher

Edifying Teachers' Edifying Roles

The Nurturing Mother and the Edifying Teacher

The Emancipator and the Edifying Teacher

The Mediator And The Edifying Teacher

Edifying Teachers as Enabling Constraints

Conclusion, or a New Beginning

Notes

Works Cited

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-193) and index.

ISBN:

1-4384-0363-1

0-585-04344-2