Performing Pedagogy: Negotiating the “Appropriate” and the Possible in the Writing Classroom

Authors

Lesley Erin Bartlett, Auburn UniversityFollow

Abstract

While the field of Composition and Rhetoric has long held that “good writing” is a construct, we haven’t thoroughly examined how “good teaching” is also a construct. Drawing from work in composition studies, rhetorical theory, and feminist theory, this essay builds on questions of identity, embodiment, and privilege to enrich conversations about writing pedagogy and teacher development and to offer writing teachers an interpretive lens through which to critically examine their pedagogical performances. I begin with the assumption that all acts of writing and teaching are performances, whether they are marked as such or not. Featuring two key rhetorical concepts, to prepon and to dynaton (the appropriate and the possible), I argue that careful attention to pedagogical performance reveals the constraints in rhetorical situations, which allows for more attention what is possible in teaching and writing. By bringing together pedagogical and rhetorical theories, this essay extends the work of the “performance turn” in Composition and Rhetoric and emphasizes how teachers and students negotiate the “appropriate” and the possible in both teaching and writing.

Recommended Citation

Bartlett, Lesley Erin (2015) "Performing Pedagogy: Negotiating the “Appropriate” and the Possible in the Writing Classroom," Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education: Vol. 4: Iss. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/vol4/iss2/3