18 Process Pedagogy

lefevre, Karen Burke, Invention as a Social Act, Carbondale, IL; Southem Illinois UP,
1987.
Lunsford, Andrea and Lisa Ede. "Audience Addressed/ Audience Invoked: The Role of
Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." College Composition and Commu­ Expressive Pedagogy:
nication 35 (1984): 155-71.
Macrorie, Ken. Telling Writing, Rochelle Park, NJ; Hayden, 1970. Practice/Theory, Theory/Practice
- - . Writing to Be Read. New York: Hayden, 1968.
Marshall, James. "Of What Does Skill in Writing Really Consist?: The Political Life of
the Writing Process Movement." Tobin and Newkirk, 45-55. CHRISTOPHER BURNHAM
Moffett, James. Teaching the Universe of Discourse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
Murray, Donald. Learning by Teaching: Selected Articles on Learning and Teaching.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1982.
- - . A Writer Teaches Writing. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
Newkirk, Thomas. The Performance of Self in Student Writing. Portsmouth, NH:
Boynton/Cook, 1997.
Newkirk, Thomas, ed. To Compose: Teaching Writing in High School and College. 2nd ed.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1990.
Newkirk, Thomas and Nancie Atwell, eds. Understanding Writing. 2nd ed. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann. 1986.
North, Stephen. The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field. '-€> INTRODUCTION
Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1987.
Odell, Lee and Dixie Goswami, eds. Writing in Nonacademic Settings. New York: Guil­ In "Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories," James
ford Press, 1988. Berlin reminds us that all pedagogy is ideological; any single approach sup­
Perl, Sondra. "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers." Research in the ports'an underlying set of values while questioning others. He analyzes the
Teaching of English 13 (1978); 317-36, teaching of writing according to a set of interactions among the four separate
- - . "Understanding Composing." Tobin and Newkirk, 43-52. elements that Constitute a rhetorical act: writer, audience, message, and lan­
Reagan, Daniel. "The Process of Poetry: Rethinking Literature in the Composition guage. These are often represented as a triangle. The element placed within the
Course." Tobin and Newkirk, 83-96.
triangle assumes greatest prominence, mediating the others. Expressivism
Romano, Tom. Clearing the Way: Working with Teenage Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heine­
mann. 1987. . places the writer in the center, articulates its theory, and develops its peda­
Rose, Mike. Writer's Block: The Cognitive Dimension. Carbondale, IL: Southern lllinois UP, gogical system by assigning highest value to the writer and her imaginative,
1984. psychological, social, and spiritual development and how that development in­
Routman, Regie. Literacy at the Crossroads: Crucial Talk About Reading, Writing, and Other fluences individual consciousness and social behavior. Expressivist pedagogy
f employs freewriting, journal keeping, reflective writing, and small-group dia­
Teaching Dilemmas. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
Sehllb, John. Between the Lines; Relating Composition Theory and Literary Theory.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1996.
t logic collaborative response to foster a writer's aesthetic, cognitive, and moral
development. Expressivist pedagogy encourages, even insists upon, a sense of
Shaughnessy, Mina. Errors and Expectations: A Guidefor the Teacher of Basic Writing. New writer presence even in research-based writing. This presence--"voke" or
York: Oxford UP, 1977. ethos-whether explicit, implicit, or absent, functions as a key evaluation cri­
Sommers, Nancy. "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writ· terion when expressivists examine writing.
ers." College Composition and Communication 31 (1980): 378-88.
Invoking expressivist values in conversations about teaching writing gen­
Tate, Gary. "A Place for Literature in Freshman Composition." College English 57 (1995):
303-9. erally arouses controversy. Allies come from various, sometimes conflicting,
Tobin, Lad. Writing Relationships: What Really Happens in the Composition Class. ideological backgrounds. bell hooks, the African-American feminist and liber­
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1991. atory teacher, presents an arguably expressivist pedagogy in Sisters of the Yam:
tobin, Lad and Thomas Newkirk. Taking Stock: The Writing Process Movement in the '90s. Black Women and Self-Recovery (1993) and Teaching to Transgress: Education as the
• Portsmouth, NH; Boynton/Cook, 1994. Practice of Freedom (1994). She assigns great value and responsibility to the
'rimbur, John. "Consensus and Difference in Collaborative Learning." College English teacher as well as to the writer or person, insisting that education at every level
51 (1989): 602-16. and in every context attends to ethical formation. She argues that community
'ells, Gordon. The Meaning Makers: Children Learning Language and Using Language to morality depends on the ethical discrimination and consequent individual ac­
Learn. Portsmouth, NH; Heinemann, 1986. tion of each of its members and implicates dominant institutions for failures in
20 Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory. Theory/Practice Chrislophnr Rllrnham 21

education. She invokes Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and peace and justice perspective blames expressivism for everything that is wrong in contempo­
activist, to challenge teachers to accept the ethical responsibility of professing. rary culture and education. Demonized and dismissed from both sides of the
Confronted with students" desperately yearning to be touched by knowledge," political spectrum, expressivism, however, as it has in hooks, transforms and
many professors fail to rekindle the passion they once felt and reject the chal· reasserts itself.
lenge and the opportunity their students offer. Her answer destabilizes the con· From its inception, rhetoric has been concerned with the relationship be­
temporary, academic sense of the term profess, recalling its original sense of tween the writer/speaker and all the other elements of the rhetorical triangle.
passionate commitment in professing a vow. She raises the stakes for univer­ From a philosophical perspective, Merton, invoked in hooks, reasserts Socrates'
sity teachers to a level that would surely frighten many: assertion in the Gorgias that rhetorical training, central to all educa tion, is a
moral undertaking "concerned with justice, self-control, and virtue. Even Aris­
li, as Thomas Merton suggests in his essay on pedagogy "Learning to Live," totle, an arch empiricist, postpones his concern with technical rhetoric long
the purpose of education is to show students how to define themselves "au­ enough to concede the centrality of ethos as an appeal in the Rhetoric. And re­
thentically and spontaneously in relation" to the world, then professors can cently, Linda Flower discusses the Significant but problematic influence of the
best teach if we are self-actualized. Merton reminds us that the "original and expressive in The Construction of Negotiated Meaning: A Social-Cognitive Theory
authentic 'paradise' idea, both in the monastery and in the university, implied of Writing. Present at the beginning and still present, expressivist concerns cut
not simply a celestial source of theoretic ideas to which Magistri and Doctores across subdisciplinary boundaries and methodologies. They are in us and of
held the key, but the inner self of the student" who would discover the ground us as humans.
of their being in relation to themselves, to higher powers, to community. That The education of the writer is a central problem. We resist the implications
the "fruit of education ... was in the activation of that utmost center." (Teach­ that grow from hooks and Merton and others, however, by placing writing,
ing to Transgress 199) and not the writer, at our diSciplinary center. I previously argued that we must
teach reflection, and we must use journals in various contexts to help students
In "Learning to Uve," Merton emphasizes student self-discovery and the re­ develop intellectually, cognitively, and ethically. Now the best I can do is pro­
sponsibility to make informed life choices: vide a context and encourage your persistence through the argument and
sources that will follow. Remember, however, that bibliographic entries begin
The purpose of education is to show a person how to define himself authen­ with names of persons. These are the people who have shaped my thinking
tically and spontaneously in relation to the world-not to impose a prefabri­ about expressivist issues.
cated definition of the world, still less an arbitrary definition of the individual
himself.... The world is, therefore, more real in proportion as the people in
it are able to be more fully and more humanly alive: that is to say, better able '€> BACKGROUND
to make a lucid and conscious use of their freedom. Basically, this freedom
must consist first of all in the capacity to choose their own lives, to find them­ For our purposes, any reference to expressivism will invoke both the theory
selves on the deepest possible level. .. and the pedagogy developed from that theory, as well as the contributing writ~
The function of the university is, then, first of all to help the student dis­ ers, teachers, and thinkers. The relationship between theory and practice, es­
cover himself: to recognize himself, and to identify who it is that chooses. (358) pecially in expressivism, is complex. Practice is often based in intuition or
convention and precedes theorizing. Theory can attack and thus neutralize
Though hooks would reject Merton's masculine gender references, she endorses counterarguments. Theory can defend against attack from opposing perspec­
his aim. In her own work she accepts the responsibility to be passionate and tives. Theory can result from synthesis; the creative act resides in bringing to­
to develop socially and morally aware citizens whose actions begin in mutual gether ideas from various sources. Theory and practice can self-conSciously
respect. Education, she asserts, is the responsibility of individual teachers and merge as is the case with liberatory praxis. The strange theory/practice rela­
small communities connected by cultural identity or a shared experience of tionship in expressivism explains my title.
marginalization or alienation. Sisters of the Yam offers a specific program to ac­ Expressivism weaves together several sources: nontraditional textbooks
complish this reclaiming of the person. She and, as I argue later, Peter Elbow offering innovative practices for teaching writing, commentaries by first­
offer paradigmatic examples of expressivist teachers. generation expressivists that began to articulate theory, theorizing in reaction
Critics of expressivism range broadly across the ideological spectrum to scholarly and ideological attacks, and, recently, syntheses that integrate
from Marxists to cultural conservatives. Depending on political orientation, expressivism with social and liberatory rhetorics. The movement originated
. opponents deride expressivism as arhetorical, atheoretical, anti-intellectual in the 1960s and 1970s as a set of values and practices opposing current­
; and elitist, or, conversely, standardless, antitraditional, and relativistic. Either traditional rhetoric.
22 Expressive Pedagogy: PracticeJTheory. Theory/Practice Christopher Burnham 23

Current-traditional teaching emphasized academic writing in standard back from both teacher and students turns the responsibility for writing back
forms and "correct" grammar. It reinforced middle-class values, such as social to the student. It:! Telling Writing (1970) and elsewhere, Macrorie insists that in­
stability and cultural homogeneity, and supported' the meritocracy associated dividual writers recreate their original experience in "telling" details. He
with the military-industrial complex. Male students attending universities on protests against the academic language of the schools, which he calls "Eng­
the GI bill were its primary audience. Current-traditional rhetoric assumed the fish." He instructs students to keep a journal as a reflective exercise for docu­
gate-keeping role class and economics had previously played, making sure that menting individual experience and personal development.
these veterans, whether supply sergeants, tank mechanics, sailors, flyers, or in­ Elbow's Writing Without Teachers (1973) values the act of writing as a means
fantrymen, could write easily enough to pass their courses and subsequently for both making meaning and creating identity. The "teacherless" classroom
meet the engineering, production, and managerial needs of the prosperous returns the responsibility for and control over learning to students. The book
postwar American society. In "Contemporary Composition: The Major Peda­ attends mostly to invention. Freewriting helps students ~Hscover ideas and their
gogical Theories," Berlin critiques current-traditional rhetoric for its static, em­ significance, center of gravity exercises develop and focus these ideas, and peer
pirically based epistemology that holds that all knowledge can be found in response groups allow writers to test their writing on an actual audience and
concrete reality thrClugh close observation, that language is an uncomplicated revise on the basis of that response. In an appendix, "The Doubting Game and
medium for communicating already existing knowledge, and that the work of the Believing Game-An Analysis of the Intellectual Enterprise," Elbow cri­
teaching writing is limited to getting students to use grammar correctly, to con­ tiques conventional Western skepticism, encouraging writers to engage a di­
form to formal and stylistic conventions, and to argue exclusively from exist­ alectic of perspectives-self and others, the familiar and the strange-to make
ing authority available in books. Sharon Crowley in The Methodical Memory themselves better writers, thinkers, and citizens.
(1990) completes a close analysis of current-traditional rhetoric, tracing its ori­ In Writing with Power (1981), Elbow shows how objective as well as sub­
gin back to Ramus' splitting of logic from rhetoric. She demonstrates that jective evaluation criteria can help writers revise for specific audiences to ac­
current-traditional approaches to teaching writing undervalue the role of the complish specific purposes. His approach becomes more rhetorical. The
writer and language in shaping knowledge and reflect an indefensibly reduc­ emphasis on process continues. The context is social and active; the writer is
tive view of reality. Current-traditionalism, she argues, is not really a rhetoric concerned with having an impact on an actual audience. Elbow instructs writ­
because it does not consider the interactions between all the elements of the ers to maintain a productive paradoxical tension between individual and group.
rhetorical triangle. These critiques are significant to expressivists because the Equipped with well-developed personal identities, individuals can function ef­
relation among the individual, language and epistemology, and the nature of fectively in groups or culture. Interdependence is both the source and locus of
rhetoric, not accounted for in current-traditional thinking, became the unartic­ power. Voice is a central concern in Writing with Power. It symbolizes the ex­
ulated originating force for the original expressivists, as well as the central fo­ pressivist value system. Elbow and the expressivists, anticipating feminist ped­
cus for the more recent syntheses of expressivism and social rhetoric. agogy, work to subvert teaching practices and institutional structures that
Current-traditional pedagogy clearly dominated the teaching of writing in oppress, appropriate, or silence an individual's voice.
universities between the ends of World War IT and the Vietnam War. During In collaboration with Pat Belanoff, Elbow further elaborates the role of
that same time, graduate studies in English concentrated on professionalizing groups in A Community o/Writers (1989) and a companion pamphlet developed
literary criticism, in the process ignoring or devaluing pedagogy. Several non­ for teachers, Sharing and Responding. The expressivist use of groups anticipates
traditional textbooks and commentaries date to this period and mark the emer­ John Trimbur's critique of collaborative writing in "Consensus and Difference
gence of expressivism as defined in this essay. Donald Murray, Ken Macrorie, in Collaborative Leaming." Trimbur champions dissensus. Dissensus recog­
Peter Elbow, and William Coles all offered counter approaches to current tra­ nizes, celebrates, and explores difference to reestablish social. autonomy. Dis­
ditional pedagogy in anti-textbooks. They wrote for an audience of teachers as sensus concedes the power of groups and culture to shape individuals, but
much as for students. Though radical departures for the time, many of these maintains the possibility of individual agency. Expressivism shares this belief
methods now constitute mainstream writing instruction. and purpose. The proof of dissensus, for Elbow and the expressivists, is voice,
the individual identity of the writer working in a community.

~ ANTITEXTBOOKS
'€> EXPRESSIVIST COMMENTARIES
Originating in and committed to classroom practice, expressivism's first co­ AND BACKGROUND THEORY
herent statements of value and methodology occur in alternative textbooks.
These were antitextbooks offered as critiques of standard institutional practice. In 1968, Elbow offers a pedagogical commentary, "A Method for Teaching Writ­
"'··....ay's A Writer Teaches Writing (1968) organizes the writing course as a work­ ing/' that reflects the flavor and intensity of the early expressivists. He argues
and exemplifies the process approach. Murray's use of nondirective feed- that voice empowers individuals to act in thp lArn..l~ l-la "",......•• ~.~ 1..: __ •.•••..•
24 ExpressIve Pedagogy: Practice/Theory, TheorylPractlce Christopher Burnham 25

ence counseling applicants for conscientious objector (CO) draft status during relations between language, meaning making, and self-development. Elbow's
the Vietnam conflict. Elbow, a CO himself, sees writing as a means of political freewriting, based originally on his own journal writing, requires self-conscious
action. He teaches those he counsels that they must do more than just make language processing. In "Toward a Phenomenology of Freewriting," Elbow
sense when writing applications for CO status; they must communicate intense notes that the initial "experimental form of freewriting" occurred in his own
belief through voice. Writing thus becomes a form of political or social activism, personal journal (190). He describes a process similar to the generating/
The essay establishes voice as a central concern for expressivists. structuring/evaluating movement in Murray's model of the writing process.
However, most first-generation expressivists were not inclined to theorize. Elbow posits an analytic urge based in writing that results in understanding
They considered themselves teachers. When necessary they provided anecdo­ leading to action. Through the process the writer gains control of his subject,
tal narrative, metadiscourse rather than theory, to rationalize their practices. either himself or an intellectual concept. He mentions Progoff, a student of
Macrorie's Uptaught (1970) and A Vulnerable Teacher (1974) serve as good ex­ Jung, whose work in depth psychology culminated in the "Journal Workshop"
amples. Expressivist metadiscourse shows the influence of various disciplines, method, a formal journal program.
especially linguistics, cognitive and developmental psychology, phenomenol­ Expressive writing exercises require students, in a sense, to write a phe­
ogy, and existential philosophy. nomenology of self. In A Theory of Discourse, James Kinneavy argues that the
The theoretical background includes two major sources: Britton's expres­ expressive aim is psychologically prior to all others. Using Sartre and the phe­
sive function in language and Kinneavy's expressive discourse. The combina­ nomenologists, Kinneavy argues that through expressive discourse the self
tion creates something of an ambiguity. Expressivists do not distinguish moves from private meaning to shared meaning that results ultimately in some
between the expressive function of language and expressive discourse, a type action. Rather than a "primal whine," expressive discourse traces a path away
of text. This eventually causes a problem for some critics, especially Jeanette from solipsism toward accommodation with the world and thus accomplishes
Harris. She condemns the indiscriminate use of the term expressive, suggesting purposeful action. As a consequence, Kinneavy elevates expressive discourse
rather four separate labels for textual phenomena that describe more precisely to the same order as referential, persuasive, and literary discourse.
the various forms of discourse considered expressive. However, expressivists But expressive discourse is not the exclusive province of the individual; it
reject dualistic thinking, viewing ambiguity as a source of productive dialec­ also has a social function. Kinneavy's analysis of the Declaration of Independence
tic. In "Expressive Rhetoric: A Source Study," I examine Britton, Kinneavy, and makes this dear. Contesting the claim that the purpose of the declaration is per­
commentary by Murray, Coles, and Elbow to construct an expressivist theory suasive, Kinneavy traces its evolution through several drafts to prove that its
of language and epistemology. primary aim is expressive: to establish an American group identity (410). Kin­
Murray attends to epistemology in "Writing as Process: How Writing Finds neavy's analysis suggests that rather than being individualistic and otherworldly,.
Its Own Meaning" in Tunothy Donovan and Ben McClelland's Eight Approaches or naive and narcissistic, expressive discourse can be ideologically empowering.
to Teaching Composition (1980), an anthology with a strong expressivist bent. In
this "speculation upon the composing process" (3), Murray proposes an in­
strumental relation between composing and meaning-making. He examines '€> BRI'ITON'S EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION
three related activities: rehearsing, drafting, and revising. These involve com­
plex interactions between contrary impulses: exploring and clarifying; collect­ Though expressivism borrows freely, some would say shamelessly, from a wide
ing and combining; and writing and reading. Through these interactions, variety of sources, Britton's expressive function contains its theoretical center
meaning evolves. Murray's commentary resembles James Britton's analysis of and so requires treatment in some detail. Britton offered a developmental tax­
the function of expressive language in Language and Learning (1970): writing is onomy of writing derived from dose observation of the process through which
a process of discovering meaning through shifting back and forth from partic­ children learn language. With origins in linguistics and cognitive and devel­
ipant to spectator modes, and writing involves interaction between self and opmental psychology, the taxonomy emphaSizes the expressive function of lan­
subject. Through several iterations, writers use language to generate, connect, guage, providing a wealth of linguistic and pedagogical insights that can be
shape, and then evaluate for a purpose. According to Murray, "The writer is developed for a variety of purposes, from theorizing expressivist rhetoric to
constantly learning from the writing what it intends to say. The writer listens justifying the study of literature to providing a write-to-Iearn methodology for
for evolving meaning.... The writing itself helps the writer see the subject" writing across the curriculum. Britton's is the only discourse theory that at­
(7). Murray includes a social element in the process, insisting that his students tends to the regulative function of language and includes a developmental ma­
work within a writing community. Meaning results from the interaction of trix that considers both mature and immature uses of language. Britton's
teacher and students, writers and readers, process and product-all accom­ expressivism has, in a sense, become part of the tadt tradition in contempo­
plished through language. rary teaching of writing; it is at the center of the National Writing Project and
Expressivist pedagogy is systematic and purposeful, based on a theory of Whole Language movements.
26 Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory. Theory/Practice Christopher Burnham 27

Language and Learning presents Britton in the role of theorist. He blends journal writing documenting or exploring immediate thoughts, feelings, and
narrative based on his experiences as teacher, writer, and parent with then cut­ moods; and personal letters.
ting-edge literary criticism, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. He invokes In the expressive mode, writers shuttle back and forth between participant
Edward Sapir's distinction between the referential and expressive functions of and spectator roles, generating ideas, then shaping them into language that can
language. Britton emphasizes the expressive function. It opposes the referen­ stand on its own. With its generative function, expressive writing plays an ob­
tial, whose purpose is to represent and transcribe material reality. Por Britton, vious role in learning to write: "Thus, in developmental terms, the expressive
the expressive function makes language personal and idiosyncratic. It provides is a kind of matrix from which differentiated forms of mature writing are de­
a means for individuals to connect abstract concepts with personal experience veloped" (83). In addition, as a link between the private and personal and the
and to negotiate the boundaries between public and private significance. The public and social, as the language of association and connection, expressive
result is concrete understanding and learning. Additional sources for Britton's language is the language of learning.
theory include L. S. Vygotsky's "inner speech"; Bruner's cognitive psychology, Prom its inception, Britton's taxonomy has influenced process-based ap­
with its emphasis on the instrumental relationship between language and learn­ proaches to teaching writing. The approaches developed by Murray and El­
ing; and Noam Chomsky's generative transformational theory of language. bow, for example, implicitly or explicitly use Britton's developmental taxonomy
The Development of Writing Abilities (11-18) (1975) presents Britton as a re­
to help students and teachers navigate the journey through which personal and
searcher validating the theoretical insights offered in the earlier book. It offers
private insights and sensations become coherent, publicly accessible writing.
an observational and empirical analysis of the writing students do in school.
In "Expressive Rhetoric," I argue that Britton's taxonomy creates common space
Britton and his colleagues focus on the two primary roles writers can play when
that contains the seeming oppositions among expressive, cognitive, and social
producing language: the participant role in which writers use language to get
approaches to rhetoric, providing a coherent model for understanding writing
things done and the spectator role in which writers use language to relive the
as the result of interactions among individually and culturally defined forces.
past. As participants, writers shape reality to an end. As spectators, writers
Returning to alternative textbooks for a moment, William Coles uses the
recreate reality. realization that expressive discourse has both individual and social functions
Locating participant and spectator roles at either end of a continuum, he to great advantage. The Plural I: The Teaching of Writing (1978) presents a se­
introduces a third mediating role, the expressive, in which the writer functions mester-long sequence of writing assignments that engages students in writing
as both participant and spectator. Prom each role he derives a category of writ­ self-critical phenomenology. Through the sequence, the class, as individuals
ing. In the participant role, writers produce transactional writing, in which lan­ and as a group, come to agree on a set of meanings and values concerning the
guage is used to accomplish the business of the world. Transactional writing purpose of education, in the process achieving Coles' goal of forming his stu­
is divided further into informative and conative writing, roughly corresponding dents into practicing humanists. The sequence culminates in a formal review
to the traditional classifications of exposition and persuasion. In material added and evaluation of the work of the course. Anticipating the reflective self-as­
to the second edition of Language and Learning (1993), Britton adjusts these cat­ sessments that have become important in current portfolio evaluation practice,
egories slightly to include informative, regulative, and persuasive writing. Infor­ Coles' final assignment asks for formal reflection: "Where did you start this
mative writing makes information available, regulative writing impels or term? Where did you seem to come out? ... who were you? Who are you
commands action, and persuasive writing moves readers from inaction or am­ now?" (258). Those interested in more work connecting expressivism and
bivalence to specific action. In each instance the writing involves a transaction reflective thinking should consult Jean MacGregor's Student Self-Evaluation:
between writer and reader, hence its name. Fostering Reflective Learning (1993), especially Richard Haswell's "Student Self­
On the other end of the continuum, writers acting in the spectator role pro­ Evaluations and Developmental Change" that argues a causal relationship be­
duce poetic writing. Poetic writing is language used as an art medium, as a ver­ tween expressive work in reflective contexts and progression through schemes
bal icon, whose purpose is to be an object that pleases or satisfies the writer. of both cognitive and moral development. In Kinneavy's terms, Coles is ask­
The reader's response is to share that satisfaction. In traditional terms poetic ing his students to write apologia, a high level of expressive discourse.
writing is literary discourse, language that "exists for its own sake and not as a
means of achieving something else" (Britton et a1., 91).
With transactional and poetic writing constituting boundaries of the par­ '€> RECEPTION, IDEOLOGICAL CRITIQUES,

ticipant/ spectator continuum, Britton establishes a third category; expressive AND THEORETICAL DEFENSES

writing, that mediates the two. As a functional category; expressive writing rep­
resents a mode rather than a form. More important than its existence as a text, Expressivism originated in opposition to mainstream practice, offering an al­
expressive writing achieves its purpose through allowing the text to come to ternative to current-traditional teaching. The mainstream reacted in a variety
\ existence. Examples include "thinking out loud on paper" (89); notes and drafts of ways. Chief among these was simple dismissal. Expressivism was labeled a
'intended for the personal and private use of writers and their collaborators; fringe movement. More substantial opposition came in the form of thp h~('k-
28 Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory. Theory/Practice Christopher Burnham 29

to-basics movement which, with its emphasis on grammar and standard for­ however, places expressivism's defenders in a position of alienation, not a po­
mats, was really current-traditional teaching dressed in new clothes. sition of power. Such alienation has resulted in a new and powerful strand of
Several other rhetorical schools grew up along with expressivism, all part expressivist work that articulates the theoretical base that has always been pres­
of the renaissance in rhetoric in the 1960s and 1970s. These other schools, es­ ent though latent in expressivist work. Elbow, after he gets his work with stu­
pecially neoclassicism and cognitive rhetoric, were not averse to theory. Ex­ dents and teachers done in Writing Without Teachers, turns to the theoretical
pressivists distrusted theory because it often distracted attention from students with an appendix essay criticizing Western epistemology and the institutional
and teaching. Given the early expressivist aversion to theory, it is no surprise control it exerts in education.
that formal theoretical considerations of expressivism are generally critical. Merging theory and practice is the aim of much current expressivist work,
WJlliam Covino notes the antipathy of both classicists and cognitivists, both of work informed by feminism and critical pedagogy. Sherrie Gradin, working
whom label expressivism's sense of the self and its importance irrational (4). from a feminist perspective, has attempted to synthesize the expressivist po­
Lately, however, cognitivists have reaffirmed the important but problematic tential for reflective consciousness raising with liberatory and critical pedagogy
role of the self. The arch-cognitivist Jerome Bruner, though "acutely uncom­ to articulate more clearly the practice of left and radical epistemicism. The two
fortable" with considerations of the self, concedes that merely labeling the self constituent urges, the expressive concern to potentiate self-aware individuals
a cultural construct does not negate its power. In Actual Minds, Possible Worlds as agents and the epistemic concern with social context and ideology, create
(1986), he theorizes a "transactional self" (57-69) that through metacognition social expressivism.
and reflection "penetrates knowledge," allowing us to own that knowledge and Gradin's purpose in Romancing Rhetorics: Social Expressivist Perspectives on
ultimately become "a member of the culture-creating community" (132). Mem­ the Teaching of Writing (1995) is to politicize expressivism and "establish a ped­
bership in such a community is the goal of much expressivist work. In The Con­ agogy of equity" in which all can contribute and be heard (121). She explores
struction of Negotiated Meaning, cOgnitivist Linda Flower includes expressive a commonly overlooked connection between romanticism and expressivism.
practices along with rhetorical practices among the "basics" that are the be­ Pointing to German romanticism's concern for social justice and political ac­
ginning point of all literacy education. She references John Willinsky's The New tion, she counters the claim that expressivism values individualism to the ex­
Literacy (1990) to confirm the centrality of Britton's expressive writing as both clusion of social concerns. Rather, expressivists value autonomy as signaled in
the originating point and the "heart of meaning making" (25). the concern to empower people through voice, and they believe that individ.
The most aggressive critiques originate in social rhetoric, specifically from uals can use personal awareness to act against oppressive material and psy­
Berlin and Lester Paigley. Berlin offers an extended ideological critique in "Con­ chological conditions. She also connects expressivism with feminism, noting
temporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories," where he portrays that Elbow and his pedagogy are referenced in Mary Belenky and colleagues'
"expressionism" as an untheorized and ideologically debased form of neo­ Womens Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind (1986). Sim.
Platonism. Elsewhere he links expressivism to "Emersonian romantic" rhetoric ilarly, in Writing from the Margins: Power and Pedagogy for Teachers of Composi­
and subsequently to the "rhetoric of liberal culture" and to Dewey and the pro­ tion (1990), Carolyn Erikson Hill considers Elbow and other expressivists as
gressive education movement. He locates expressivist rhetoric among "subjec­ models for building a new pedagogy of awareness and eqUity. Another book
tive" theories of rhetoric. His critique is rich, attending in considerable detail connecting expressivist theory, feminism, and the teaching of writing is Cyn­
to expressivist practices to construct a theory despite his own claim that ex­ thia Gannett's Gender and the Journal: Diaries and Academic Discourse (1992), a
pressivism has none. His self-admitted allegiance to social epistemic rhetoric, work of teacher·research that offers historical as well as ideological analyses of
however, results in readings that are not verified by close analysis of expres­ journal use in personal and pedagogical contexts.
sivist work. Berlin and the other social rhetoricians view expressivism's pri­ Responding to the complaint that expressivists are antitheoretical, Elbow
mary flaw as a false and otherworldly epistemology of the self that privileges reconsiders his own practice. He elaborates a theoretical frame, examines his
individualism and rejects the material world. Paigley argues that expressivism's application, and provides an extended defense of voice in Landmark Essays: On
romantic view of the self is philosophically and politically retrograde, making Voice and Writing (1994), a collection of sixteen essays by various theorists, in­
it ineffectual in postmodern times. Further, expressivism's concern with the in­ cluding Bakhtin, Walker Gibson, and Walter Ong, as well as allies and critics
dividual and authentic voice directs students away from social and political of expressivism such as bell hooks and Faigley. In an introductory essay, About
11

problems in the material world. Voice and Writing," Elbow traces the voice controversy as far back as Aristo.
tle and Plato. He equates voice and ethos. He argues that because Aristotle in­
cludes techniques to, in Aristotle's words, "make ourselves thought to be sensible
't> SYNTHESES and morally good ..." (Elbow's emphasis), Aristotle affirms Plato's earlier de­
claration that ethos--good character-is the central concern in all rhetoric. Aris­
• Attacks by expressivism's critics have resulted in several syntheses that chal­ totle "is affirming both positions in what is in fact a common sense view: 'It's
e lenge the presumption that expressivism is atheoretical. Responding to attacks, nice to be trustworthy; but if you're skilled you can fake it'lt (xli).
 Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory. Theory/Practice Christopher Burnham 31
30

"Resonant" voice, one of five empirically verifiable instances of voice, is tween the social science-dominated professional compositionists, whom I
Elbow's primary concern. Sensitive to critiques of the expressivist view of self, would place in the long tradition of rhetorical inquiry, and the "writers," among
Elbow walks a careful theoretical line. Resonant voice manages to get a great whom he positions the expressivists Donald Murray and Ken Macrorie. Both
deal of the self "behind the words." Discourse can never "articulate a whole books offer contributions but limit their value by not engaging the controver­
person," but at times we can "find words that seem to capture the rich com­ sies as thoroughly as Elbow and hooks do.
plexity of the unconscious ... that somehow seem to resonate with or have be­ In addition, expressivism continues to receive attention in College English,
hind them the unconscious as well as the conscious [his italics] .... [W]ords of College Composition and Communication, Rhetoric Review, and the Journal of Ad­
this sort ... we experience as resonant-and through them we have a sense of vanced Composition. Expressivism's kinship with philosophy, evident in Kin­
presence with the writer" (xxxiv). As with voice, Elbow relates "presence" to neavy, explains a recent defense against the ideological critiques. In "Poli­
ethos in classical rhetoric. A significant article illuminating the issue of ethos tics and Ordinary Language: A Defense of Expressivist Rhetorics," Thomas
in classical rhetoric, especially.as it is applied, correctly or incorrectly, in con­ O'Donnell questions the motivation of some ideological critics, accusing them
temporary work on the teaching of writing is Roger Cherry's "Ethos Versus of being more interested in teaching a particular ideology than in providing
Persona: Self-Representation in Written Discourse." students with the tools of social and political critique. Expressivism's strength
Later in "Introduction: About Voice and Writing," Elbow connects resonant is its insistence that all concerns, whether individual, social, or political, must
voice with self-identity and argues that voice in writing is a locus for power. originate in personal experience and be documented in the student's own lan­
From a pragmatic perspective, he argues against a binary view that opposes guage. What O'Donnell calls expressivism's "unguardedness" makes it attrac­
sentimental (expressivist) and sophisticated (postmodem) views of self; writ­ tive to teachers concerned with raising political consciousness. He offers a
ers need to use both. The sentimental self (the believer) functions best in ex­ defense based on ordinary language philosophy, showing how expressivist
ploratory writing. The sophisticated self (the doubter) works well when practices "facilitate investigations of political issues in unique, sometimes nec­
revising with a pragmatic end in mind. essary ways" (424).
In the same volume, Randall Freisinger's "Voicing the Self: Toward a Ped­ Another strong contribution comes in the work of Steven Fishman, a phi­
agogy of Resistance in a Postmodem Age" counters the claim that expressivism losophy professor who teaches from a writing across the curriculum perspec­
devalues social and political engagement, arguing instead that the expressivist tive, and Lucille McCarthy, who introduced Fishman to writing across the
concept of self is a starting point for resistance as defined by Henry Giroux. curriculum theory and practice. They constitute an effective collaborative team
Freisinger undertakes a serious examination of postmodem theory and its re­ using Fishman's teaching in general education philosophy courses as a peda­
lation to expressivism. Examining the critiques of Berlin and Faigley in the light gogicallaboratory. In addition, McCarthy serves as research methodologist and
of Ira Shor's liberatory practice and current postmodern theories of agency and evaluator for their pedagogical experiments.
self-construction, Freisinger notes with appropriate irony that liberatory ped­ In a series of articles, Fishman and McCarthy examine attacks on expres­
agogy makes extensive use of expressivist strategies to accomplish the goal of sivism based in discourse community theory. Led by Bartholomae, critics ar­
creating a consciousness of social and cultural formation in students that em­ gue that emphasizing personal writing, as expressivism does, wastes students'
powers them to resist that formation. More about that at the end. time. Rather, students need training in the conventions of academic discourse,
so they can succeed in the institutions that will provide them access to eco­
nomic and social power. Fishman and McCarthy begin their counterargument
'€> OTHER RECENT WORK by asking "Is Expressivism Dead?" Answering no, they argue that expressivism
does not endorse the concept of the isolated individual. Arguing from the same
The best index of any movement's significance is its persistence in the profes­ socially concerned German romanticism as Gradin, they contend that expres­
sional literature. By that measure, expressivism thrives. The ideological cri­ sivist techniques can be used to achieve social-constructivist goals in a writing
tiques inspired the several volumes of expressivist theory and application noted across the curriculum context. In "Community in the Expressivist Classroom,"
above. In addition, two small books implicitly critique expressivism but offer they explore the tension between conventional authoritarian and expressivist
expressivist applications. Both address issues of self and identity in the writ­ liberal and communitarian classroom values. Fishman claims some success in
ing classroom. Both steer clear of the expressivist!social rhetoric anomalies ad­ promoting student voice while teaching disciplinary conventions. However, his
dressed above to avoid tarring or being tarred in the process. Robert Brooke experience underscores the complexity of the expressivist classroom where stu­
uses learning and identity negotiation theory in Writing and the Sense of Self dents function as experts and teachers as learners. They conclude that this com­
(1991) to explore the social and intellectual dynamics of the writing workshop. pleXity, rather than the reductive either lor positions generally presented in the
In The Performance of Self in Student Writing (1997), Thomas Newkirk uses nar­ scholarly literature, offers significant opportunities for progress.
rative theory to repair what he views as an unproductive disciplinary split be- The last essay, "Teaching for Student Change: A Deweyan Alternative to
32 Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory, Theory/Practice Christopher Burnham 33

Radical Pedagogy," defends the safe and cooperative classroom championed That is to say, I think, either that cultural theory in rhetoric establishes its
by the expressivists against recent charges by feminists and critical teachers identity only by devaluing its other-in this case the presumed naive and ide­
that expressivist pedagogy protects the status quo by encouraging politeness ologically retrograde vision of self and resistance in expressivism--or that cul­
that camouflages inherent conflicts in the classroom and society at large. Fish­ tural theory in rhetoric will have to look beyond itself for an answer to its own
man and McCarthy offer an alternative that privileges diversity and encour­ self-contradiction: the problem is agency, but agency is impossible in a deter­
ages transformation for teachers who "find certain types of conflict unattractive mined system. Specifically, Freisinger argues, resistance becomes possible only
but who seek student critique and change" (344). In John Dewey and the Chill­ through expressivist strategies. The problem is disciplinary definition, and an
lenge of Classroom Practice (1998), Fishman and McCarthy propose an approach imperative to violate those boundaries. Postmodern theory depends on resis­
that integrates the curricular interests and needs of teachers and the needs and tance to alter the determined system it describes and decries, and expressivism
experiences of students. The approach is writing intensive, employing dialog­ depends on a social constructive view to discover and activate the self it
ical written commentaries where students pose and answer each others' ques­ theorizes.
tions, with Fishman providing additional written commentary as a mentor and Back to bell hooks. Teaching to Transgress centers itself squarely on the prob­
co-inquirer. Very much in the spirit of Shor's approach in Critical Teaching and lem of dichotomizing theory and practice. A student of Paulo Freire, she views
Everyday Life, but without ideological and political agenda, Fishman's question praxis, the convergence of theory and practice, as the primary concern of lib­
and answer approach merges class topicS with student experience and exi­ eratory pedagogy. She recalls her childhood, a time of alienation in which she
gencies, allowing Fishman to accomplish his goal of having students learn sutr felt the oppressive power of her family shaping her into a proper black girl­
stantive intellectual content through personalizing and applying philosophical child. It was then that she developed a habit of theorizing. She calls that ex­
concepts in their own lives. McCarthy analyzes the students' written work to perience her introduction to critical thinking:
demonstrate that they do engage and apply the course topicS and learn in the
process. Their approach offers a paradigmatic example that applies expressive Living a childhood without a sense of home, I found a place of sanctuary in
values to integrate the individual with the social and to serve the ultimate ed­ "theorizing," in making sense out of what was happening. I found a place
ucational goal of fostering individual moral and ethical development to influ­ where I could imagine possible futures, a place where life could be lived dif­
ence civic and cultural life. ferently. This "lived" experience of critical thinking, of reflection and analysis,
because [sic] a place where I worked at explaining the hurt and making it go
away. Fundamentally, I learned from this experience that theory could be a
'€> CODA: PRACTICE/THEORY. THEORYIPRACTICE healing place. (61)

Freisinger's analysis of voice and agency noted above makes extensive use of Praxis is the means and locus for building critical consciousness. With El·
Paul Smith's Discerning the Subject (1988). Smith critiques postmodern theory bow she shares a goal; the aim of her pedagogy is to create a place for voices.
for being a victim of its own world view, invoking the common failure of "dis­ The voices in the classroom include the voice of the teacher as well as those of
ciplinary self-reflexivity" as the origin of the problem. He argues that post­ the students. Her expectations of the teacher are extremely high: to bring stu­
modern theory relies so intensely on the view that humans are created en­ dents to voice, teachers must have and understand voice. And voice is related
tirely by their social! cultural experience-that culture and history determine to self-actualization. She calls this kind of teaching, "engaged pedagogy": "Pro­
identity-that postmodemism is unable to conceptualize a subject that can rec­ gressive, holistic education, 'engaged pedagogy,' is more demanding than con­
ognize and move beyond its determined nature. A socially constructed, totally ventional critical or feminist pedagogy. For unlike these two teaching practices,
determined self, even if it could achieve self-consciousness, is not capable of it emphasizes weU·being. That means that teachers must be actively commit­
seeing anything other than social construction and determinism. This world ted to a process of self-actualization tha t promotes their own weIl·being if they
view can only perpetuate itself, circling more and more in upon itself in its con­ are to teach in a manner that empowers students" (15).
straining views of determinism. In Smith's terms: Engaged pedagogy involves a holism that repairs the habitual dichotomiz­
ing of conventional thinking, repairing splits between body and mind, intel­
Approaching disciplines in this way puts the accent not on the "nature" of the lect and spirit, teaching and learning, and theory and practice. hooks describes
object as such, but on the aspects of agency inscribed within it. What blocks a set of dialectical relationships that echoes Elbow's theme in "A Method for
disciplinary self-reflection then is the untheorizability of the activation of its Teaching Writing": "Any classroom that employs a holistic model of learning
own objects-their fabrication as determinations of experience-and this is pre­ will also be a place where teachers grow, and are empowered by the process.

l
cisely why, contrary to certain hysterically defensive views, interdisciplinary That empowerment cannot happen if we refuse to be vulnerable while en­
research has always been immanent to the disciplines. Every discipline is couraging students to take risks" (21). Engaged pedagogy, holistic teaching,
obliged to tum to its "others" to resolve its self doubt. (xviii) th~ ~rp thp pvn1"OCc;"1';cf. "".,.,....:"- ........

34 Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory. Theory/Practice Christopher Burnham

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