"Caught in the Nets of 'Discipline'": Understanding the Possibilities for Teacher Resistance to Dominant Writing Discourses

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Policies in the Classroom

Abstract

The commodification of curriculum brought on by neoliberal policies has led to a standardization of writing expectations and assessment at the expense of the development of unique student voices. Some writing teachers have resisted this systematization by finding ways to implement a sociocultural approach to writing amidst the array of accountability pressures. This critical policy analysis used Certeau’s concept of consumption to analyze how writing teachers strategically and tactically resist policies that work to systemize and commodify student writing. The results are represented in poetic and narrative forms and relate the subtle, everyday interactions with students in which the teachers worked to circumvent and make explicit the systematization of writing.

Authors

• Bryan J. Duarte, Purdue University

• Curtis Anthony Brewer, The University of Texas - San Antonio