The Art of Revision

Prospectus submitted, prospectus returned. Looking at it now, I'm embarrassed at my hasty draft. However, a crappy draft, a detailed editorial review, and a healthy dose of shame to drive revision is really how I work best as a writer. Of course, there is already a snag. I initially wrote that critical pedagogy has lost popularity and credibility in the academic landscape. To prove this, my advisor suggested checking the critical pedagogy hits in College English and College Composition and Communication over the years to show a decrease of interest. However, there isn't a significant shift in the number of articles. I assume, though, that current articles are more critiques of critical pedagogy rather than pitches. I'm assuming because certainty would require a lot of sifting - 1500 articles worth of sifting to be exact. Instead, here is my current introduction (which looks to bypass that work for the moment):

Dissertation Prospectus - Critical Pedagogy 2.0: The Post-Fordist Classroom
When critical pedagogy rose to popularity in the 1980s, there was clear justification for its appeal. In a time where composition was looking to distinguish itself as more than a service industry, scholars and teachers seized the opportunity to bridge teaching composition with the theoretical work of the Frankfurt School, Antonio Gramsci, and Foucault, amongst others, to illustrate that the teaching of writing had always had larger and ethical and political implications than we traditionally acknowledged. It also helped rationalize the problems that arose after open admissions policies changed the socio-economic make up of college campuses, connecting student success and engagement with the students' ideologies, which were formed based on their economic and social status in society. By the end of the 80’s, although the diversity of sources and methodologies taken up by critical pedagogy continued to expand, it became an umbrella term that described the various ways educators work to critique the capitalistic institution of higher education and to empower those who have disenfranchised by the system.
Since the term critical pedagogy was coined by Henry Giroux in 1983, there have been dramatic changes in the economic and social landscape, mostly driven by the rise of the Internet. These changes raise questions about the effectiveness of standard critical pedagogy approaches and give cause for practitioners to consider new ways to achieve the same goals. In the words of Paulo Freire, "This pedagogy makes oppression and its cause objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade" (33). My dissertation will examine how critical pedagogy in composition classrooms was made and how it could be remade to address changes in labor and social modes of power. Could there be a critical pedagogy 2.0 that thrives and functions within new media ecologies and takes into consideration new forms of capitalism and modes of power? Throughout my diagnostic and prescriptive sections, I will be focusing on three key questions: How has labor changed? How have modes of social power changed? And how does our conception of critical literacy need to change?

Philosohical Foundations

Quoted from http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/Philosophical_Foundations.htm:

Philosohical Foundations

Critical Pedagogy, then, is defined by what it does - as a pedagogy which embraces a raising of the consciousness, a critique of society, as valuing students’ voices, as honoring students’ needs, values, and individuality, as a hopeful, active pedagogy which enables students to become truly participatory members of a society who not only belong to the society but who can and do create and re-create that society, continually increasing freedom.

Building a Chapter

I type today with dusty fingers, both literally and figuratively. We are preparing our home for sale to inhabit a new space that will positively shape our interactions and lifestyle. Today, the basement is being prepped for carpet. Luckily, I am only the sweeper and can escape from time to time. Figuratively, my fingers are dusty from use. A friend sent me a quote of an email I wrote before motherhood and tenure track, and I thought, "Wow, who wrote that?" Once, I had a voice instead of job. So here I begin to find it again.

What I'm discovering to be the hardest part of the dissertation is the time investment for the output. After reading and researching all day yesterday, what I had was a few short paragraphs with placeholders and new books ordered through the Michigan Electronic Library. This is hardly an impressive result to justify daycare, a messy house, and not teaching the spring semester: "In order to best understand the rich, complicated genealogy of critical pedagogy, I will be tracking its history using Raymond Williams concepts of emergent, dominant, and residual. As a social practice tied to classroom interactions, critical pedagogy wanes, shines, and ebbs in relation to cultural shifts -- in particular those related to labor. [Discuss of Williams terminology]."

Dissertation Summer

Currently, I'm going through work withdrawal, a malady typically associated with Winter and Spring Break. However, I fear the magnitude of this illness as I now look at four months without grading a paper or fielding questions on various rhetorical strategies. It's imperative to treat my current symptoms with healthy doses of dissertation research and writing. Currently, I am waiting approval for my prospectus. It's the type of proposal writing that I despise.

To all the blogs that have come before...

For years, my loyalty lay with Wordpress. However, when asked to do a professional development session on blogging, I recognized the superior usability of blogger for a novice. In order for me to know what is best for my students, my colleagues, and for the genre of blogging in general, I've decided to conduct my spring/summer blogging on Blogger.

Last summer's blogs are below:
http://cyborginterrupted.wordpress.com/
http://criticalcapitalism.wordpress.com/