Teachers, Discourses, and Authority in the Postmodern Composition Classroom

Xin Liu Gale is Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

"One of the interesting and revealing features ofTeachers, Discourses, and Authority in the Postmodern Composition Classroom is that the author uses her personal experience as an English teacher in China and her extensive knowledge of educational movements during the Cultural Revolution to support her theoretical philosophical discussions. This personal dimension adds flesh and blood to an already insightful, intelligent, and revealing analysis. The work represents composition scholarship at its most mature and sophisticated." — Gary A. Olson, From the Foreword

• Foreword by Gary A. Olson Acknowledgments Chapter 1:  Introduction Chapter 2:  The New Paradigm and the Questioning of the Traditional Teacher's Authority Bourdieu and Passeron's Theory of the Traditional Teacher's AuthorityThe Changing Classroom and the Questioning of the Traditional Teacher's AuthorityA Perplexing Dimension of the Teacher's AuthorityChapter 3:  Reconsidering the Teacher's Authority The Institutional Authority as Necessary EvilThe Ambiguity of Authority of Expertise and Personal AuthorityChapter 4:  Rethinking the Relationship of Discourses In the Classroom Discourse as the Site of StruggleRorty's Notion of Normal and Abnormal DiscourseResponsive Abnormal Discourse and Nonresponsive Abnormal DiscourseDifferences Between Responsive Abnormal Discourse and Nonresponsive Abnormal DiscourseReconceiving the Discourse Relationships in the ClassroomChapter 5:  Discourse as Enabling Constraints Lena's Story as an Indication of the Need for Primary Interaction in the Writing ClassChanging the "Stabilized Social Audience" Through Primary InteractionStories about "Outsiders": Critical Consciousness versus Critical LiteracyThe Two-Level Interaction as Means to Critical LiteracyChapter 6:  Edifying Teachers as Enabling Constraints The Concept of the Edifying TeacherEdifying Teachers' Edifying RolesThe Nurturing Mother and the Edifying TeacherThe Emancipator and the Edifying TeacherThe Mediator and the Edifying TeacherEdifying Teachers as Enabling ConstraintsConclusion, or a New BeginningNotes Works Cited Index