The infamous Ryan Gosling "Hey girl" meme, Foucault style.Credit to the "Sex Radical Ryan Gosling" tumblr.
Foucault makes me cringe, mostly because I have a hard time conceptualizing how his theories can apply to a composition classroom. This response attempts to focus on the concept of power as authority.
I believe the concept of power in the composition classroom is tied more to the authority of the teacher than the authority of the institution. Each instructor values and expects different criteria from the students, and therefore each section of composition holds a different weight. Although the English department specifies what criteria should be present, ultimately each instructor holds the power to teach and grade (judge? interpret? rule?) as they choose. The fact that Dr. Bad and Dr. Evenworse have different expectations means they also have different authority over the students. The simple point is that the teacher—no matter the expectations—will always be the teacher and will therefore always have power over the students. In fact, as long as a grade is given, there is always some sort of authoritative control.
Nicholas Thomas has a nice little quote that ties in pedagogy and Herzberg (from our other reading) that summarizes my main concern: “Spellmeyer used Foucault’s work to debunk the capacity of a teacher to teach writing because subjectivity would only ever allow teaching to be didactic. Spellmeyer then came to the same conclusion Herzberg had, that the impossibility of escaping power means that the best we can do for our students is make power transparent” (155).
The idea of “transparent power” can never be possible in the classroom because students will always receive a grade. (Obviously, you say. OH!, I exclaim, except for that one class that…Elbow?...taught where they had to make special notes on transcripts explaining why the student received a pass/fail...but even then passing requires an authoritative voice to make that judgment.)
Instead of focusing on the final product, which must receive some sort of evaluation, I wanted to consider different practices or assignments that could work toward Thomas’ suggestion to “disrupt your powers of surveillance” (173). First I thought of Elbow’s contract grading, because I always think of Elbow (see above.)
If you don’t know what contract grading is, check out this blog article in The Chronicle. Then look at the comments. You’ll be able to get a decent grasp on the opposing side of the argument. And like Hara admits, Elbow and Danielewicz explain it much more thoroughly. I see contract grading as a removal of power but only if the contracts are negotiated, just as Chronicle reader russhunt mentions in his comment. In this way, a student has some control even if a higher power decides what constitutes enough work to receive a particular grade.
That slight bit of control is still rather weak, so I continued to think of ways instructors can relinquish authority. This led me to Shipka’s article from last week, “A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing.” Although she does not reveal the exact assignment she discusses, Shipka claims the freedom of the assignment allows the students to take control and “…the opportunity to begin structuring the occasions for, as well as the reception and delivery of, the work they produce” (279). Thomas would be pleased if this assignment did, in fact, make students uncomfortable (173).
So is assigning multimodal compositions the best practice for surrendering our authority as instructors and increasing students’ agency? (Yes, Foucault, I just used war terminology.) What other ways can instructors make power transparent? Perhaps before answering how, give your opinion on why they should or shouldn’t.
Can you define Foucault’s definition of power as if he was referring specifically to a composition classroom?
How and where does “truth” exist in a composition classroom?
Works Cited
Hara, Billie. “Using Grading Contracts.” Profhacker. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 Oct. 2010.
Web. 8 Apr. 2012.
Shipka, Jody. “A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing.” College Composition and
Communication 57.2 (2005) : 277-306. Print.
Thomas, Nicholas. “Pedagogy and the Work of Michel Foucault.” Jac 28.1-2 (2008) : 151-180. Print.
