DOCUMENT RESUME 'ED 371 380 CS 214 384 AUTHOR Rankin, Elizrbeth TITLE Seeing Yourself as a Teacher: Conversations with Five New Teachers in a University Writing Program. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Ill REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-4298-2 PUB DATE 94 NOTE 149p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 42982-0015; $9.95 members, $12.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) Books (010) EDRS PRICE MFOI/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *College English; College Faculty; Higher Education; Professional Development; *Teacher Role; *Teacher Student Relationship; Teaching Methods; *Theory Practice Relationship; *Writing Instruction; Writing Research; *Writing Teachers IDENTIFIERS *English Teachers; *New Teachers; Professional Concerns; Teaching Research ABSTRACT Springing from a series of weekly conversations with five second-year teachers in a university writing program, this book presents reflections on some of the questions about teaching'that emerged from those conversations. The book is divided into three sections. The first secti.on, "Taking It Personally," examines how the feelings, attitudes, and experiences of the teachers influence how they interact with their students. The second section, "Thinking Theoretically." shows that, although the teachers feel that they do not theorize, theory is present in all their conversations about teaching writing and that theoretical thinking is encouraged by the dissonance between their implicit theories about teaching and those found in journals and textbooks. The third sectioL, "Seeing Yourself as a Teacher." explores the relationship between the teachers' reluctance to deny their role as teacher when conversing and their ambivalence about personal and professional boundaries and personal and public pedagogical thcory. Between each section of the book, an "interchapter" explores relevant issues and offers commentary. (NKA) *****************x***************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be .olade from the original document. *********************************************************************** 3 ' -versations withFive N Teachers e-7 ink; UniversityrigPro U S Of PARTIOINT Of fOOOTION °ERMISCiiN RE FPC,D; CrE I MI6 A' .SAS 4 4s". (4G Na CAVA', 41 MATERIAL HA'a 8EEN GRANTIP By r ?). a ,4 i;15;y.11, '. ci 41 AS C. P.' ^AI ' s.c tO-S. .14,4 JAIA. `r A SO V A es 'at .4.4, ^ 444 ' pc, cl 5 V1 ". -4 4454 lat. PIO' 4 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - ta. r INFONMATION CENTER CERICI Seeing Yourself as a Teacher NCTE Editorial Board: Rafael Castillo, Gail Hawisher, Joyce Kinkead, Chark.s \loran. loui.e W ps. Charles Su hor, Chair, ex officio, Michael Spooner, ex officio NCTE College Section Committee: Cynthia Se Ife, Chair, Michigan Techno- logical Lniversity, rat Belanolf, SUN? at Stony Brook; tal Brannon, SUN? at Albany, Don, 0 Gtnn, (.1 CC Representative, Jackson State University, Jeanette h tarns, University of Southern Mississippi. James Hill, Albany State College, Dawn Ri.xirigues, Colorado state University, Tom Waldrep, Univer- sity ot xouth Carolina, II. Thomas McCracken, CTE Representative, \bungs- town StateI. nix ersitv,I ouise timith, ex officio,Editor, College 1:ng1ush. L. nix, ersitN ot Massachusetts at Boston. James F Davis, Executne Committee laison,Thio I, myersity. Miles \t yrs NCH' .,taft.I iaison Seeing Yourself as aTeacher Conversations with Five New Teachers in a UniversityWriting Program Elizabeth Rankin University of North Dakota National (nn ii ot lea4 hers ot English 11)1 1N, Kenyon Rod, Urbana. Illin)isntg01-10Lit, Ma nus-cript Editor. Mimi I. Mukeriee; Humanities R.; Scivnees Associates Production Fditor Michael G Ryan Interior Design Torn Kovacs tor 1-(lK Design Cover Design I.oren Kirkwood TE. Stock Number 42982-30=10 1494 by the National Council ot Teachers of English All righ'.. reserved Printed in the L clued States of America It is the policy ot NCTE in its iournals and other publicationsto provide a filrum tor the open discussion of Ideas 'concerning thecrtyent and the teach- ing ot English and the language arts Pablicitv accordec1 to any particular point ot view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board ot Directors, or the membership a: large, except announcements of policy, 1,N here such endorsement is cleariv specified Library of Congress Cataleging-in-rubt;,:ation Data Rankin, Elizabeth Deane Seeing curself a teacher.ont ersations with fit e new teachers in a university vritin:, program iI bk. Rankin m Inc'udes biWiographicz; references and index IsRN -42'18-2 1 Englist% languagt --Rhetoric -Study and teachingUnited States 2C. 'mauve writing t:ligher education)--Lnited States1 1:nghsh teachers- United ',tatesInteryiews4 College teachers-- l'mted States inter% iews I Title 14tr, t:h123f. 1'194 sOm' .'42'ir7I 71 th '44I ch71 CIP Contents Prrface ix Intwduction xiii 1 1 Taking It Personally Interchapter Research and the Personal 40 2Thinking Theoretically .44 Interchapter The Theorist in Me 82 3Seeing Yourself as a Teacher 85 Interchapter Seeing Myself as a Researcher 121 Afterword 125 Wo r Ls C ited 131 Index 133 Author 136 0.41 Note Allofthe names in this book ex,-ept mine have been changed to protect the privacy ot the researchparticipants Mostof the quoted pai.sages in this manuscript are drawnfrom trans( npts of recorded mierviews with the fivegraduate students in my study Although I have not tried to capture everynuance of these cons eNationsevery pause, fake start,interruptionI have tried to maintain the flavor of the spoken voices In some cases, passageshave been edited to delete irrelevant or repetitious material,such places are marked by ellipses Except torisolated instances where a word is italicized tor emphasis, italics indicate passages excerpted fromwrit- ten text, Preface Spring I am teaching the "Seminar on Teaching CollegeEnglish" to a class of twelve first-year graduate teaching assistants.This year, I have deter- mined to do it differently, to put more emphasis onthe writing they do, to let them take control of the class.Nevertheless, I have chosen readings, and I have asked the class to respond tothem, in writing, in class discussions, and once while I am out of town, insmall groups. At first I am surprised by their reactions. They resistalmost everything even each other. While I am outof town, they become a dysfunctional tarmly, competing tor authority in the small groups, goingsilent, refus- ing the tasks I have left forthem. When I come back. I am disappointed and angrybut I am also tired. It is sixteen years nowthat I have been teaching, half that time as a temporary instructor,half as a regular faculty member. I he year has been an exhausting onefor me, fighting battles with my colleagues over hiring, interviewingfor jobs else- where, myselfI have a year of leave coming up, and I don'tfeel like fighting this TA seminar Somewhere I stumble acrossJane Tompkins's "Pedagogy ot the Distressed" (1990), and it gives mepermission to let goI let go It's tunro, what happens when a person like melets go For one thing, not everyone notices Months later,I find myself talking with one ot these I As about letting go,and she laughs at my concern. "People like us," she says, "don't have to worryabout being irrespon- sible l'eople like us couldn't be irresponsible if wetriedMaybe she's right But at the time, I can't see it Tompkins or noTompkins, I feel like I'm not doing my job At midterm, the TAs tom in drafts tit theirteachin5; narratives- -es- says designed to evoke andreflect on some aspect of their fall teaching expe tient e Mike Rose's I.wes tinthe Boundary (19to) has been a model ot sorts, here-- hut gix en their reaction toRose (one person excoriated his writing style), I don't know what to expectI take the dratts with me to Minneapolis over springbreak and begin reading them in the car on the wav borne At first, I amsimplv relieved the assignment has IX 9 Preface "worked" as I hoped it would The stories they tellare rich with remembered experiencesthe gut-wrenching fear whenyou meet that first class, the betrayal of trust when a student plagiarizes, the frustra- tion at a student who rejects your best efforts to reach him, theanger at a peer who openly criticizes your work. And in nearly all of these drafts is an element of reflection, a sense that the writer hasgrown beyond the narrated experience, that theprocess of writing itself has assisted that growth Then, 1 realize that something else is goingon here. Two of the narratives are more than goodthey are stunning! Inone piece, a young woman TA takes her class outside to watch freight trains from the overpass. Interwoven through her essaya complex personal meditation on freedom, authority, and resistanceare fragments of her students' writing, writing so powerful that Ican hardly believe it comes from eighteen-year-olds. Another narrative takes off in a Joy- cean modea portrait of the teacher as a young man in love with languagebut turns Kafkaesque when the young TAis calledin by the campus police Apparently, a chance remark he made in class has frightened one of his students, a young woman recently raped byan unknown attacker. The narrative ends with the TA's frustratedat- tempts to tell the story to his father, whose well-meaning butnervous response sounds familiarI recognize it as my own response when he reported the incident to me, his teaching supervisor, last semester Intrigued by what I have seen in the narrative essays, I find myself looking past unfocused seminar discussions to the other writing these TA s are doing. I have mixed responses to the reading journals: It's clear that some people lust aren't doing the reading. Or they'r; readingonly enough to spark a response tor the journal.