"Ideas about Human Possibilities": Connecticut's PA 12-40 and Basic Writing in the Era of Neoliberalism
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: David Bleich's exploration of language conflicts in the university inThe Materiality of Language: Gender, Politics, and the University helps explain the ongoing struggle over basic writing as between two radically different understandings of language.Progressive educators and writing teachers see language as rhetorical and contextual, "material" in Bleich's terms.Policy makers, large-scale writing assessment designers, and public discourse generally see language as ahistorical and decontextualized, involving ladders of skills to be mastered, or "sacralized."This article examines the struggle between these materialist innovations and repressive policy mandates and assessments as a manifestation of this root struggle over language.The ongoing nature of this struggle, having occurred in this country for over a century, means progressive programs must maintain a stance of constant vigilance, innovation, and subversion.The outcome critically affects efforts to increase access to higher education.
Source: Journal of Basic Writing
Author: Patrick Sullivan
Institution: Manchester Community College - Connecticut
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: University of Connecticut
OpenAlex ID: W2789110388