A Personal Logos of the Heart
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WRITING THE TRUE SELF: CASE STUDIES OF ENG 101 STUDENTS RESPONDING TO A PETER ELBOW-INSPIRED CURRICULUM BY JON W. STANSELL DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Secondary and Continuing Education in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Klaus Witz, Chair Professor Fred Davidson Associate Professor Peter Mortensen Professor U. Henry Gerlach Abstract My fulfillment in life comes through helping others develop their potential, work through their troubles, and follow their dreams. I have found that my college students embrace this aspect as I teach them expressive, author-involved writing. Peter Elbow’s work asserts that this type of writing fits into his theory of personal development, which is based on common ideals of self, belief, and voice. I have written instructional materials for introductory college composition courses that follow Elbow in these principles. I believe this course, “Writing the True Self,” and its accompanying philosophy strongly resonate with students attending Brigham Young University–Hawaii. Having been brought up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as LDS Church or Mormon Church), these students come from a cultural literacy context in which authorship and personal development are related. Therefore, in this research project, I examined student development in my English 101 classes at this church-sponsored university where 95% of students are Latter-day Saints. Particular attention was paid to changes in each person’s articulation of consciousness, core values, and higher aspects: the “personal logos of the heart,” or “true self.” The case studies were based primarily on two of their five assignments, impressions of their class participation, and transcripts of student-teacher conferences. They are portraits that suggest overwhelmingly that class members, in response to this curricular approach were gaining a deeper understanding of themselves. ii Table of Contents Chapter I Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter II Review of Literature ................................................................................................ 15 Chapter III Methodology ........................................................................................................... 28 Chapter IV Portraits of Participants ........................................................................................ 40 Chapter V Cross-Case Discussion ........................................................................................... 160 Chapter VI Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................... 199 References .................................................................................................................................. 206 Appendix A Participant Consent Form .................................................................................. 209 Appendix B Participant Recruitment Script .......................................................................... 211 Appendix C Conference Question Guidelines ........................................................................ 212 Appendix D Essay Assignments ............................................................................................... 213 iii Students at all levels instinctively talk and think about voice, or their voice in their writing, and tend to believe they have a real or true self— despite the best efforts of some of their teachers Peter Elbow, Voice in Writing Again iv Chapter I Introduction College teachers of Freshman Composition find that some students do not write convincingly, and some feel it has to do with their background. The culture that most students come from, although increasingly word-based through e-mail and instant messaging, is not particularly literary. The students who become good writers must somehow filter out unimportant messages, unthinking reactions, and the shallow media representations of their generation. They must learn to make meanings personal. A standard way writing teachers dislodge students from this comfortable, yet vapid place is presenting curricular topics that are familiar, but have substance. Some teachers supply an idea or controversy and allow students to choose a topic within a theme. Others focus on a genre, and encourage students to explore a work from the genre that connects with them. Conversely, some choose boring themes such as birth order because they are “safe” and will not create controversy in mixed groups. Teachers must understand their student demographic to make these decisions. My dissertation is based on the assumption that an ideal curriculum would relate to the students personally and form a compelling sequence with increasing engagement and student investment throughout the semester. A course based on Peter Elbow’s precepts does this, encouraging student development in writing and in general, implicitly claiming that expression containing belief, voice, and identity can cause personal growth or development. My study considers curricular content that I developed for my classes based on this method of teaching writing, to see if it works in a culture that steps back from the superficial aspects of our society. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), people are encouraged to become 1 spiritual, intelligent, compassionate, and courageous by learning the doctrines of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and literacy is a primary factor in their education. To explore these assumptions further, this qualitative case study examined both personal and writing development that occurred in students attending my English 101 classes at Brigham Young University–Hawaii in fall 2008. In contexts with competing, divisive ideologies or with students who feel they have reached a developmental plateau, this method may not work very well. The BYUH students, on the other hand, came from an LDS cultural context, which teaches that sharing convictions enables gradual growth over a lifetime. Teaching these students using the exploration of preferences and beliefs as suggested by Elbow resulted in personal growth and improvement in writing. The influences of LDS literacy culture, my teaching philosophy, curricular themes, and writing instruction worked together to promote excellent student writing, participation, and interaction. Statement of the Problem Peter Elbow’s writing philosophy. One major direction in the teaching of English composition is the expressivist philosophy, specifically as understood and practiced by Elbow, an iconic figure in writing. Never part of the scholarly mainstream, and often marginalized by them, Elbow has conscientiously spoken to writers and teachers in practical and encouraging ways. I was initially influenced by Elbow in 1998, in the Rhetoric program at Brigham Young University-Provo. My personal copy of “Writing with Power” suggests I had read pp. 1-60 at some point. I had highlighted (ugh) encouraging phrases to inspire my teaching: “[You] already have many of the crucial skills [you] need” (p. 8); “invest yourself and be believing” (p. 9); and “some passages grow out of . simultaneous creativity and critical thinking” (p. 10). I suppose that the idea of personal empowerment and particularly freewriting (p. 13) resonated deeply with 2 me and “stuck,” because although I did not stay in rhetoric—spending a couple of years each in programs of applied linguistics, Russian literature, and finally curriculum and instruction—I used it consistently in the classes I was teaching at Parkland Community College. However, I did not understand the depth of Elbow’s philosophy until the winter of 2007, when I was preparing for my Ph.D. qualifying exams. As part of this process, my advisor, Dr. Witz, read an essay from one of my students and was somewhat perplexed. He asserted that my grade considered whether her writing matched my overall perception of the student. He asked, “Who taught you to read like this? Who taught you to teach writing like this?” My eventual answer to these questions was Elbow. He explains that writers must begin with their personal writing voice, which when inhabited fully can then move to include audiences and cultures (Elbow, 2007, p. 176). Reading-based philosophies have dominated recent teaching in English, to the extent that decentering authors from their texts, removing the “I” pronoun, and trying primarily to please one’s audience are now common writing practices, but he insists that authors should have a stake in their writing (Elbow, 2000, p. 142). Students are experts in their own life experience, and can become more proficient in deriving convictions from their associated feelings and opinions, so this should be a valid topic for writing (Elbow, 1968b, p. 123). Sharing convictions furthers the almost universal psychological and educational goal, which is that writers become powerful, confident in their means of communication, and sophisticated in their command of writing resources to meet their individual goals. Instruction as envisioned by Elbow should relate to students on the personal growth level, and it should be visible in their writing as their voices engage in more comprehensive ways with subject and audience. 3 Rhetorical theory vs. practical reality. The current alternative