Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change

(Language and Literacy)

Peter Smagorinsky (Editor)

3.58 · Rating details · 19 ratings · 1 review

The third volume in a landmark series on composition research!

Covering the period between 1984 and 2003, this authoritative sequel picks up where the earlier volumes (Braddock et al., 1963, and Hillocks, 1986), now classics in the field, left off. It features a broader focus that goes beyond the classroom teaching of writing to include teacher research, second-language wr ...more

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Hardcover, 308 pages

Published December 8th 2005 by Teachers College Press

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Peter, start your review of Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change

Feb 25, 2013 Eric rated it liked it

Shelves: field-exam, rhet-comp

Smagorinsky’s anthology is a detailed examination of trends in composition research from 1984-2003. He opens the collection by “assum[ing] a strong quantitative bias through much of the [preceding] era” covered in previous iterations of such collections (3). He notes shifts in the period his book addresses toward qualitative research and “[i]ssues of equity, gender, cultural practice, social relationships, tacit hierarchies and power relationships, the social nature of textuality ... arising fro Smagorinsky’s anthology is a detailed examination of trends in composition research from 1984-2003. He opens the collection by “assum[ing] a strong quantitative bias through much of the [preceding] era” covered in previous iterations of such collections (3). He notes shifts in the period his book addresses toward qualitative research and “[i]ssues of equity, gender, cultural practice, social relationships, tacit hierarchies and power relationships, the social nature of textuality ... arising from ... scholars oriented to the various ‘post’ positions” (4). In short, many researchers have moved from the search for universals .... and generated new questions about the situated nature of teaching and learning as they are enacted amid competing political agendas, constructed subjectivities, social goals and structures” (12). The book opens with sections on elementary and secondary composition. The chapter “Writing at the Postsecondary Level” notes contemporary teachers, rather than focusing on “developing writing abilities,” seek to cultivate “a certain sensibility, a ... disposition of mind in which the student writer is taught a commitment to community service, an awareness of inequities, a critical stance toward authority, and a questioning nature regarding established ways of thinking” (88). After sections on teacher research and L2 composition education, a section of research in rhetoric claims that social constructionists guided by Paulo Friere adhere to “the antifoundationalist position that there is no basis for seeking, acquiring, and producing knowledge” (175), as that “[t]heory and pedagogy have yet to define methods of accomplishing the goal of pluralism alongside the goal of empowering students to succeed individually and socially in ... Standard English” (177). A chapter on family and community literacies notes the importance of changing institutions rather than just educating individuals, and is followed by a chapter on “Writing in the Professions” (208). The final chapter focuses on historical studies in composition, which notes Lad Tobin’s reflections on “the heady first move toward a theory-based pedagogy” in the “early years of the process movement” (265). ...more

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