How do we move forward?

In the passages by Schell and the chapter by Miller, we started getting a glimpse into more about what feminist theory looks like. In Miller’s book, we get a more history of the events happening early 1990s, and many are the same conversations we are still having today.

Many of the conversations from Miller are ones that I have heard before. She starts off discussing how as composition teachers we invite students to behave, learn, and communicate in a way that is acceptable to the middle-class (which I would argue is still true today); students need to learn the process of revision to gain critical-thinking skills (which is still widely taught today); and finally we are still at the hands of the university’s admission (which again, is still pretty true today). For me, the one I have most difficulty with is the first point. Teaching toward one ideal of this ivory tower, seems very problematic. As a field, I think we tote that we are innovative, but I feel like we are still a bit slow to change. This might have less to do with the fact that we aren’t innovative, and rather, we can still find our hands tied because we still have to answer to university politics and values (which can be vastly different from our own). In regards to process, I think this might be a bit of an outdated theory, but again I am not a pure compositionist, so I may be wrong. In technical writing, we teach process to get to product (because workplace writing might have severe consequences if you can’t make the finished product), so I am in a little disagreement with process teaching, but Miller has her reservations as well. All in all, when I was reading these chapters, I found myself thinking “Yep, these are some issues we are still having today; how do we push past them?”. So, I’ll be looking forward to hearing what others have to say/think!

Schell’s points are also very common to issues I still hear today, but I found these really interesting as a female instructor who works in a lot  of part-time teaching roles. A lot of difficult labor is placed on women, especially women in adjunct, TA, or other non-contingent roles. Her article continues to discuss what a composition teacher looks like; and Schell points out the problematic issues that arise when viewing a teacher in a “motherly” sense. While she points out some of the CARE aspects we discussed from week 1, it also places an additional amount of labor if as instructors we take on the role of caregiver. I will say that I have found myself sitting with a student for half an hour or longer at a time discussing items outside of class because they seemed like they needed to talk to someone; on the flip side, I can recognize times where I was that student encroaching on time of my female instructors. While I don’t believe that having conversations with students is a negative experience, it does take away time that could be spent doing research, working on a dissertation, etc., so when I think about actionable items I can do to protect that time and not place more labor on myself, it might be to gently create an excuse after a reasonable time with the student, so that I can go back to work. Additionally, as a student, I think I need to be more mindful and intentional of not monopolizing time of my female instructors, so they can continue doing other tasks, research, etc.

When I was reading Schell’s article, I think I got most frustrated when she mentioned a male came up to her and said that “I wish I was a woman this year. You women have it made–no one wants to hire white males.” While her response was correct that there was definitely some misconception, I think there is SO much more to it, like she alludes. Firstly, I think that statement is false, even 30 years later. Secondly, there is a misconception that women are being hired for simply being women. I think that is also incorrect. I believe that now there is a bigger stance to hire a qualified candidate, and thus men are actually having to compete (rather than simply be handed an opportunity based on their maleness). But, again, this is just my speculation. I don’t have data that can support or refute that claim (although I am sure it is out there).