Re: Liberatory Teaching and Writing Centers

[jwerchan@lima.ohio-state.edu (James E. Werchan)]

>....... an 
>interesting perspective--basically that writing _teachers_ have a 
>responsibility to their writing _centers_--and I was wondering if 
>others had seen it.  It seemed to me that most of what he said would 
>apply across the board to writing centers, not only to teachers at 
>two-year colleges, as the venue might suggest.
>
>--Beth
...................

hi beth,
        Yes, it would seem applicable more widely.  Trouble is with a
faculty that is ideologically non-(maybe even ANTI-) liberatory.  And then
what if the community itself is, for the most part, ideologically non or anti?

        The old analogy-mill is twirling away in my head on this one.   

        Some associates work at a large factory, in the human resources
development center, training and retraining strongly unionized line workers
and skilled tradesfolks.  It is state of the art and the company has a
reputation for fairly humane HRD.    Anyway, they have heard from the head
office, out of state, that "all company factories will put into practice
teamwork production paradigms, with distributed decision-making and flexible
tasking."  That kind of teamwork entails lateral thinking and communicating.
Heretofore, each line worker worked in metaphorical "silos" of
communication, not trusting the other silos, and scapegoating them when work
flow "accordioned" or stopped flowing completely.  Of course, accordioning
meant some workers sat on their hands waiting on parts.  And so they "had"
(actually "got") to work overtime.  
        How will my HRD associates be able to convince them to use teamwork
if doing so means less OT?  Will the warm fuzzy instrinsic rewards of
teamwork be compelling?  How, when no one has seen them, and they don't
recognize them when they're right in front of them?  The status quo always
has a rationale, I guess.  

        Meanwhile, back to the ranch:  WC/WAC are lateral communication
structures, but most departments/disciplines are silos.  The myth persists
among students ( and sometimes even faculty) that writing instruction is the
dirty business of the department named after the language, and that
biologists that insist on clear, cogent prose are unreasonable and straying
from their turf.  How can we hope to convince the sons and daughters of
those unionized workers that lateral thinking, teamwork, distributed
decisionmaking, and flexible tasking (i.e. the academic equivalents thereof)
are worth learning, when lateral thinking is no more a part of faculty
culture than among the bluecollar folks in the community?  

        So, anyway, Beth:  I applaude and bless anyone who talks about and
advocates liberatory education, but it's a long, bloody, uphill battle and
the ideological casualties are many.  Worse, I don't see any victory soon.
As in WWI, we see one side and then the other sends waves of cannon-fodder
students and teachers,  while the corrupt royal families, Windsor and
Hanover, each uphold what they think is "the right way to educate."        

        Responsibility to the WC?  Yes, of course they _have_ that
responsibility, but do they know or believe that it?  How do you convince a
fish that it is wet?

        Wow.  I got kind of morose there.  I'll get over it.

FYI: check out this URL:

http://www.montyroberts.com

Browse generally, then look for "join-up explained."

later,
james w
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
                    Dr. James Werchan
(or maybe it's just someone who kinda looks a lot like him)
              Ohio State University at Lima
                    4240 Campus Drive
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                    werchan.1@osu.edu					jwerchan@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
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