English 5011

The Composition field’s struggle for power over knowledge puts the quality of students’ education at risk. The struggles within the field of Composition originate from several different arenas largely within the field itself. According to North, the dissonance between methodological communities in Composition resulted from a political power struggle. In other words, disagreement arose concerning who was in charge of generating, testing and disseminating knowledge about teaching writing. Most often attacked by the other methodological communities (i.e. Scholars and Researchers), Practitioners have earned North’s sympathy. Scholars and Researchers have banded together in many respects to remove Practitioners abilities to experiment and formulate new methods of teaching; Practitioners pedagogues have been under attack. However, this attack is not without a valid reason.

Many Practitioners rely completely on what they consider "road-tested" teaching methods. North’s discussion of lore creates the idea that many Practitioners rely on only a few methods that they are unwilling to dismiss or even slightly alter. If a Practitioner does on occasion dip into the abundance of lore available, it is under the guise of giving the student a new opportunity. While this may seem somewhat credible in many instances, most Practitioners do not research the reasons for attempting a new method. It seems they are looking for some magical slight-of-hand that suddenly will open the world of writing to a student. Thus, Practitioners are accused of not utilizing knowledge available to them to adequately educate their students.

To clarify, Practitioners lore does not equal "knowledge" according to North or Petraglia. Lore is not a conglomeration of what is known; lore is a conglomeration of what is known and not known. Included in lore is every idea that has been offered to Practitioners, most often by Practitioners, to aid in teaching writing. Ideas, not always proven ideas, are available for employ.

Now, North does not offer his solution to the struggle for power over knowledge, and neither does Petraglia. However, Petraglia does suggest that the powers reigning over Composition knowledge should not be confined to discourse within the discipline of Composition. Part of the struggle, as North points out, is that the struggle thus far has been entirely within the boundaries of Composition. I cannot say for sure if Petraglia is suggesting that all discourses should combine in some noble search for the truth, but he does suggest that other communications fields have insight concerning the inner-workings of students’ minds. Further investigation into how students (writers) compose mentally in relation to the text can only be beneficial. How would this be beneficial? In my experience, many Practitioners have expected me to conform to their teaching methods. Several have suggested that anyone not comfortable with their routine should find other alternatives to their classes. These Practitioners are grounded in a repetitive cycle of teaching the same thing over and over. They are disinterested in their career and removed from their students. Therefore, the students’ education is at stake. Students’ livelihoods are put at risk by detached and unconcerned professors whose job is to teach. Please understand before I condemn myself as a future Practitioner, I by no means believe all Practitioners subscribe to being mediocre or worse; however, these few Practitioners have created the need for Researchers and Scholars. I am arriving at a point I did not expect to, but Practitioners alone can not be allowed to maintain the generating, testing and disseminating of knowledge about teaching writing.

In North’s discussion of solutions to the struggle for power over knowledge, he introduces Lee Odell who offers what I consider an appealing and worthwhile synthesis of the conservative and liberal models: "In addition to being teachers, we [Practitioners] should also function as discourse theorists and researchers" (Qtd. in North, 333). Practitioners are encouraged to partake in controlling knowledge but are not, and should not be, expected to command the responsibilities of knowledge. Practitioners need to be focused on "practitioning." Acknowledging that students’ education is the primary goal from all corners of Composition will enable Researchers to research, Scholars to be scholarly and Practitioners to teach. Overall, the current struggle for power over knowledge will probably never be satisfactorily resolved if the focus is not on how to best teach students about writing.