Certificate for Approving the Dissertation
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MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Aurora Michelle Sturley Matzke Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy __________________________________ Director (Dr. Kate Ronald) __________________________________ Reader (Dr. Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson) __________________________________ Reader (Dr. John Tassoni) __________________________________ Reader (Dr. Jason Palmeri) __________________________________ Graduate School Representative (Dr. Sally A. Lloyd) ABSTRACT DISTRIBUTED (UN)CERTAINTY: CRITICAL PEDAGOGY, WISE CROWDS, AND FEMINIST DISRUPTION by Aurora Michelle Sturley Matzke This dissertation argues that writing instruction should work toward the inclusion of wise crowd theory and feminist praxis in regard to social networks and theories of community practice. The study of folksonomy, as a way to socially-network communities, and wise crowd theory, the belief that community solutions can be stronger than those of experts, creates an opening for the complication of critical pedagogy. My project uses feminist pedagogical scholarship focused on disruption and resting in uncertainty as a springboard to reposition folksonomy and wise crowd theory as feminist praxis working toward the inclusion of difference in community. Four body chapters focus on defining, outlining, and showing the results of two folksonomic qualitative studies. Chapter Two, “Folksonomy as a Social System of Knowledge-Making,” begins by defining “social network,” before describing the rhetorical implications of different naming systems enforced through the “tagging” that takes place through social networking. The chapter highlights the issues inherent in the uses of folksonomic spaces and argues the tyranny of the majority has the potential to eclipse if not silence minority voices. Chapter Three, “Folk, Nomos, and Kairos: Folksonomy as a Feminist Enterprise,” interrogates the “wisdom of the crowd” model for knowledge building. The chapter uses the historical, etymological root words of folk and nomos to rhetorically position folksonomy as a critical theory in line with feminist pedagogy discourse. Chapter Four, “Wiki’d Up and Ready to Go: CFF Pedagogy, Attempted,” presents the results of a qualitative study I conducted in a graduate course focused on composition and rhetoric pedagogy. The interview-based chapter concludes with a discussion of how teacher-training courses need further change if CFF pedagogy is to be enacted in ways that more fully engage the intelligence of the crowd. Chapter Five, “Playing with Purpose: Folksonomy in the First-Year Classroom,” outlines the year-long qualitative study I conducted with the help of an instructor of an undergraduate writing course. The chapter argues that CFF pedagogy helps open up discussions of race, class, and gender in productive ways for first-year students, by significantly shifting the power structure within the classroom from the instructor and to the students. DISTRIBUTED (UN)CERTAINTY: CRITICAL PEDAGOGY, WISE CROWDS, AND FEMINIST DISRUPTION A DISSERTATION Submitted to the faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English by Aurora Michelle Sturley Matzke Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2011 Dissertation Director: Dr. Kate Ronald © Aurora Michelle Sturley Matzke 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Tracing an Oft-Drawn Line: Critical Pedagogies in the 21st Century…………………….1-16 CHAPTER TWO Folksonomy as a Social System of Knowledge-Making………………………………….17-54 CHAPTER THREE Folk, Nomos, and Kairos: Folksonomy as a Feminist Enterprise……………….………...55-93 CHAPTER FOUR Wiki’d Up and Ready to Go: CFF Pedagogy, Attempted………………..….……………94-131 CHAPTER FIVE Playing with Purpose: Folksonomy in the First-Year Classroom.………………………...132-183 CHAPTER SIX The Business of the Network, Attempting to Teach, and Other Threads…………………184-190 WORKS CITED ……………………………………………………………………………………………..191-200 APPENDICES A-I ……………………………………………………………………………………………..201-223 iii DEDICATION To Mark—for all he was, is, and will be to me, now and forever. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Miami University was a revelation to me. As a learner, scholar, and teacher, I could not imagine a better community from which to grow. From the first day of the first class, where I was introduced and encouraged to interact with new students hailing from creative writing, literature, and composition and rhetoric; seasoned students leading pedagogy workshops; and faculty eager to listen to my ideas, questions, and plans, Miami challenged me in ways that required me to stretch, adapt, and above all ask the questions, “To what end?” and “For what purpose?” Dr. Kate Ronald: friend, mentor, sage, and guide. A boundless feminist rhetorician, Kate teaches me to listen to my community, affectionately interpret what I do not understand, and above all, honor love in the pursuit of changing the world. With honey in her smile, Kate rolls up her sleeves and shows me that serious play is a hard but rewarding mistress. Dr. Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson: an attentive listener and critical practitioner, Cindy has seen my tears, entertained my neuroses, and with kind affection told me to get to work. Dr. John Tassoni: the man that taught me to say “and” instead of “but.” John’s presence follows me into the classrooms I inhabit, especially in the ways I enact my own teaching philosophies. Dr. Jason Palmeri: kind and thoughtful, a voracious and perspicacious scholar, he worked with me to add ever more complexity to my research. Sonya Parrish, Lynn Hall, Bre Garrett: just three of the women with which I have shared laughter, hardships, wine, and food. I cannot imagine Miami without my women. You teach me to believe I have something worth saying; are patient with me when my throat is closed in frustration; and comfort me when nothing else will do. The level of support you all provide me is astounding and humbling. As we racketed around this tiny town in the middle of cornfields and endless horizon, you imbued my life with stability and grace. Thank you, my wonderful friends. Mom, Jessica, Christianna, and Andrea: without reservation, pause, or thought, you are sure I am right, they are wrong, and the world would be better if everyone would just get out of our way. What would I have done out here without the phone calls, videos, pictures—the quiet assurance of your love? My family, my heart, all for which I yearn, the strength of my resolve comes from our turbulent youth, the slow progress toward adulthood, and the constant companionship we share today. No matter where I go, or what I do, you remind me I am just me. Mark: humble, gentle, and strong. What faith, to move east, away from everyone and everything, for a desire I barely understood. What kindness, to support me through this process with neither complaint nor voiced regret. What love, to hold me at night and tell me everything would be okay. My best friend, quiet companion—my life, richer for you. v Chapter One Tracing an Oft-Drawn Line: Critical Pedagogies in the 21st Century A Short, Crooked Timeline In a modern history of composition and rhetoric topoi that conceptualize the classroom, many well-known theories—pragmatic, liberatory, feminist, and dialogic—draw attention to notions of power. Inherent in these discussions of power and uncertainty in the classroom are also discussions of available spaces—the places students and teachers can or cannot speak/write with/in/toward or enact personal/communal change. A short historical timeline might begin by highlighting the work of scholars Jane Addams and John Dewey. Both rhetoricians call for education to focus on the available civic spaces, through Addams’ “social claim” and Dewey’s “civic efficiency.” These ideas find life throughout Paulo Freire’s work on “conscientização,” reinvented by compositionists as teaching for “critical democracy,” a pedagogy aimed at fostering change through learning environments. Such an aim is shared by bell hooks work, as she pushes for “progressive learning” and “democratic education” in which she seeks to disrupt domination and infuse communities with the magic of hope. As practitioners of pragmatism, critical practice, or feminism, the above authors all attempt to change available space and hegemonic power structures. These theories—although from different perspectives—are primarily engaged with negotiating power and self in relation to available space, as it either enables or hinders human learners in the processes of critical thought and action. Despite differences, they represent scholars engaged with how individuals work, play, and rest in the homepoints of their lives in relation to learning that prods critical change focused on race, class, and gender. Charles Sanders Pierce conceived of “pragmaticism” as a system based on conception (Pierce). Pierce’s pragmaticism relied on the insistence that meaning and truth come from the widest possible experience, that a combined knowledge is the truer knowledge, and that fallibilism, uncertainty, and community are the key methods of investigation employed by the learner (Pierce). Pierce’s pragmaticism relies on the ability to conceive—to form, to imagine. It is not necessarily interested in global change or even local knowledge; it’s an attitude toward and a method of developing the “truest” and “best”: a method contingent on change and additional experience, as meaning is shaped by the conceptions of those who conceive (Ronald). 1 John Dewey took Pierce’s