Sarah Hargreaves
Teaching Social Justice in First Year English Classes
Key claims and key take-aways:
The topic of social justice in the English classroom is one that unfortunately requires a form of justification. After all, what does social justice have to do with English studies? Each of these articles and book chapters do a good job of providing this justification. I would summarize this justification as such 1) social justice teaches metacognition, reading, writing, research, and revision, and 2) If we are not saving the world, we are (at best) watching it burn, (at worst) fueling the fire. And probably closer to the latter. That is to say, there is an established racist, sexist, homophobic, and neoliberatal agenda currently prevalent in our institutions. By not speaking against this we are allowing it to prosper or even perpetuating it ourselves.
While these pieces are each very different, I see common themes emerging such as liberation, anti-colonialism/imperialism, anti-white supremacy, and “saving the world.”
Key take-aways would be that teaching social justice does, in fact, teach English and enhances the field through the introduction of “new forms of discourse” (Bizzell 178). Teaching social justice helps Black students by allowing them to hear voices in authority that sound like their own and speaking to issues that are important to them (Hudley et call 40). Teaching social justice provides transferable skills such as metacognition, reading, writing, research, and revision. Teaching social justice helps save the world by working toward dismantling neoliberal ideas, racism, sexism, and anti-gay discrimination.
Annotated Bibliography:
Bizzell, Patricia. “Opinion: Composition Studies Saves the World!” vol. 72, iss. 2, College English, Nov 2009, pp. 174-187. https://kuprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/1ik10ij/TN_cdi_gale_businessinsightsgauss_A637632038.
Patricia Bizzell’s article, “Opinion: Composition Studies Saves the World!”, analyzes and critiques Stanley Fish’s book, Save the World on Your Own Time. Bizzell’s main critique of Fish’s book is that it is a straw man argument of what English studies purports to do. English studies is not saving the world, Bizzell’s claims, but it is attempting to “make the world a better place” (Bizzell 175). Bizzell justifies this stance by saying that the main function of English studies, teaching students how to write, has improved when “new forms of discourse were incorporated into academic ways of doing things” (Bizzell 178). Far from being a hindrance to the field of study, Bizzell claims it has enriched it. She goes on to say that “contact with the professor’s personality and values” (Bizzell 186) is a natural and good way to better student’s across all of academia. Bizzell is arguing for influencing students “moral and political development positively” (Bizzell 186). I can see this work being useful to anyone who is seeking to incorporate social justice materials into an English classroom.
Hudley, Anne H. Charity; Mallinson, Christine; Bucholtz, Mary. Talking College: Making Space for Black Language Practices in Higher Education. “‘Put Some Respect on My Name’: Students’ Right to Their Own Language.” Teachers College Press, 2022, pp. 23-50.
Hudley et al, in their chapter, “‘Put Some Respect on My Name’: Students’ Right to Their Own Language,” highlight the importance of teaching using Black language such as “Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences (1986) (Hudley et al 35). Hudley et all state that Black language is not just a “tool” (Hudley et al 39), “they are resources” (Hudley et al 39) and those resources help us to “study the languages of oppressed groups in order to discover the discourses in which they are linked, and to locate and amplify those parts of the discourse that can be used in liberation” (Hudley, et al 39). Hudley et al also emphasize the importance of hearing Black language spoken by authority figures, stating that “[S]omething powerful happens when a Black child hears someone commanding respect and authority while using the language that Black people have cultivated. . . They learn that what they have to say is leagues more important than others’ opinions of how they say it” (Hudley et call 40). This chapter is useful for anyone interested in using social justice materials in their English classroom and especially anyone interested in the experience of college for Black students.
Inoue, Asao B. “Narratives That Determine Writers and Social Justice Writing Center Work.” vol. 14, iss. 1, Praxis, 01 Jan. 2016, pp. 94-99. www.praxisuwccom/inoue-141.
Asao Inoue’s article, “Narratives That Determine Writers and Social Justice Writing Center Work” discusses how writing centers can be more inclusive of non-white students. Specifically, he wants writing centers to be “centers for revolution, for social justice work.” (Inoue). In this article Inoue posits there are “four main elements to white racial habitus” (Inoue) which act as a kind of discriminatory lense we read papers through, which disadvantage non-white students. These are: “Hyperindividualism,” “Individualized, Rational, Controlled Self,” “Rule-Governed, Contractual Relationships,” and “Clarity, Order, and Control” (Inoue). If any of these “dispositions to language seem preferable to you” (Inoue) then you have internalized “white racial habitus” (Inoue).
Inoue asks, “[W]hat significance to the individual student or her colleagues in the course who may read her draft does a student’s writing practices have if they primarily favor a rhetorical style that leans mostly on appeals to emotion and an arrangement that resists a linear structure, that is associative or random, that is unordered?”
I, honestly, question a lot of this article and am not sure I find it helpful in creating a center for “revolution” (Inoue) or for “social justice work” (Inoue) in the classroom. Perhaps I do not understand the article or the points Inoue is making, but my main question is, if we are saying whiteness is ordered, are we saying Blackness is “unordered” (Inoue)? Are we really comfortable saying Black writing “leans mostly on appeals to emotion” (Inoue)? I genuinely find this thinking to be some version of benevolent racism.
One positive take-away I found in this essay was when Inoue states, “White language privilege is our common oppression. Yes, even white people are hurt by white language supremacy, although they are given more advantages, too.” Although Inoue did not expand upon this statement, I still found it useful to consider. It reminds me of arguments I have heard where sexism and misogyny hurts men too. This rings true for me, though, I would have liked to have heard a bit more explanation for exactly how white language supremacy hurts white people.
McCoy, Shane A. “Writing for Justice in First-Year Composition (FYC)” vol. 116, Radical Teacher, Winter 2020, pp. 26-36. https://kuprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/1ik10ij/TN_cdi_gale_businessinsightsgauss_A637632038.
Shane A. McCoy’s article, “Writing for Justice in First-Year Composition,” delves into how and why teacher-scholars can and should use social justice artifacts/texts to teach FYC courses. McCoy first addresses the “should” question by eloquently stating that the academy is currently positioned to perpetuate the status quo of “neoliberal values” (McCoy 29) and writing as an extension of “‘job training’” (McCoy 29). However, by “writing for social justice” (McCoy 29) students can dismantle neoliberal agendas and identify their “personal stakes” (McCoy 29) in the issues, all while developing Metacognition, reading, writing, and revising skills. McCoy then addresses the “can” question by providing examples of how he teaches metacognition, writing, research, and revision in his classroom. I believe this article is especially useful to anyone asking themselves “How can I use social justice in my English classroom?”
Key questions to ask:
How can white teacher-scholars do this without fetishizing Black being and language?
Provide a diversity of texts and materials that highlight many experiences and issues.
How can white teacher-scholars do this without making Black, African American, and non-white students feel singled out? Or requiring them to do extra intellectual and emotional labor in our classrooms?
How does neoliberalism function in our classrooms?
“[N]eoliberal values frame education ‘as job training’ where ‘writing becomes a masterable, commodified skill whose purpose is deployment in the workplace.’ Within the neoliberal logic of the contemporary university, writing that serves the purpose of ‘civic engagement, personal inquiry, exploration of unfamiliar perspectives’ all ‘become ancillary to more “profitable” ends” (McCoy 29).
How do we do it?
Assignment/application 1 (Adapted from English 760: Latinx w/ Dr. Marta):
Read an excerpt from ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomás Rivera
“How come we’re like this, like we’re buried alive? Either the germs eat us alive or the sun burns us up. Always some kind of sickness. And every day we work and work. For what? Poor Dad, always working so hard. I think he was born working. Like he says, barely five years old and already helping his father plant corn. All the time feeding the earth and the sun, only to one day, just like that, get struck down by the sun. And there you are, helpless. And them, begging for God’s help . . . why, God doesn’t care about us . . . I don’t think there even is . . . No, better not say it, what if Dad gets worse. Poor Dad, I guess that at least gives him some hope.” (Rivera 292)
What is the message/purpose of the story? What is the exigence? Who is the intended audience? What is the effect or impact of the story on the audience? How does this story achieve that? Is there any ethos, pathos, or logos to the story? How do those rhetorical devices further the purpose or message of the story? How do those rhetorical devices effect or impact the audience?
Assignment/application 2:
Read Fences by August Wilson
Ask students to select a passage from Fences that they find to be of interest and close-read the passage. Ask them to consider (McCoy 30):
“CORY: The whole time I was growing up . . . living in his house . . . Papa was like a shadow that followed you everywhere. It weighed on you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap around you and lay there until you couldn’t tell which one was you anymore. That shadow digging in your flesh. Trying to crawl in. Trying to live through you. Everywhere I looked, Troy Maxon was staring back at me . . . hiding under the bed . . . in the closet. I’m just saying I’ve got to find a way to get rid of that shadow, Mama.” (Wilson 1072/Act II Scene V)
Assignment/application 3:
A free-write “activity that asks students to consider how social justice links to their fields of study” (McCoy 30).
“I ask students to free-write about social justice and discuss to what extent social justice is relevant to their majors.”
If they cannot on their own come up with how social justice relates to their field, you can ask them to Google their major and the words “social justice.” (McCoy 30).
Assignment/application 4:
Revision of Writing Project 3.
Key claims and key take-aways:
The topic of social justice in the English classroom is one that unfortunately requires a form of justification. After all, what does social justice have to do with English studies? Each of these articles and book chapters do a good job of providing this justification. I would summarize this justification as such 1) social justice teaches metacognition, reading, writing, research, and revision, and 2) If we are not saving the world, we are (at best) watching it burn, (at worst) fueling the fire. And probably closer to the latter. That is to say, there is an established racist, sexist, homophobic, and neoliberatal agenda currently prevalent in our institutions. By not speaking against this we are allowing it to prosper or even perpetuating it ourselves.
While these pieces are each very different, I see common themes emerging such as liberation, anti-colonialism/imperialism, anti-white supremacy, and “saving the world.”
Key take-aways would be that teaching social justice does, in fact, teach English and enhances the field through the introduction of “new forms of discourse” (Bizzell 178). Teaching social justice helps Black students by allowing them to hear voices in authority that sound like their own and speaking to issues that are important to them (Hudley et call 40). Teaching social justice provides transferable skills such as metacognition, reading, writing, research, and revision. Teaching social justice helps save the world by working toward dismantling neoliberal ideas, racism, sexism, and anti-gay discrimination.
Annotated Bibliography:
Bizzell, Patricia. “Opinion: Composition Studies Saves the World!” vol. 72, iss. 2, College English, Nov 2009, pp. 174-187. https://kuprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/1ik10ij/TN_cdi_gale_businessinsightsgauss_A637632038.
Patricia Bizzell’s article, “Opinion: Composition Studies Saves the World!”, analyzes and critiques Stanley Fish’s book, Save the World on Your Own Time. Bizzell’s main critique of Fish’s book is that it is a straw man argument of what English studies purports to do. English studies is not saving the world, Bizzell’s claims, but it is attempting to “make the world a better place” (Bizzell 175). Bizzell justifies this stance by saying that the main function of English studies, teaching students how to write, has improved when “new forms of discourse were incorporated into academic ways of doing things” (Bizzell 178). Far from being a hindrance to the field of study, Bizzell claims it has enriched it. She goes on to say that “contact with the professor’s personality and values” (Bizzell 186) is a natural and good way to better student’s across all of academia. Bizzell is arguing for influencing students “moral and political development positively” (Bizzell 186). I can see this work being useful to anyone who is seeking to incorporate social justice materials into an English classroom.
Hudley, Anne H. Charity; Mallinson, Christine; Bucholtz, Mary. Talking College: Making Space for Black Language Practices in Higher Education. “‘Put Some Respect on My Name’: Students’ Right to Their Own Language.” Teachers College Press, 2022, pp. 23-50.
Hudley et al, in their chapter, “‘Put Some Respect on My Name’: Students’ Right to Their Own Language,” highlight the importance of teaching using Black language such as “Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences (1986) (Hudley et al 35). Hudley et all state that Black language is not just a “tool” (Hudley et al 39), “they are resources” (Hudley et al 39) and those resources help us to “study the languages of oppressed groups in order to discover the discourses in which they are linked, and to locate and amplify those parts of the discourse that can be used in liberation” (Hudley, et al 39). Hudley et al also emphasize the importance of hearing Black language spoken by authority figures, stating that “[S]omething powerful happens when a Black child hears someone commanding respect and authority while using the language that Black people have cultivated. . . They learn that what they have to say is leagues more important than others’ opinions of how they say it” (Hudley et call 40). This chapter is useful for anyone interested in using social justice materials in their English classroom and especially anyone interested in the experience of college for Black students.
Inoue, Asao B. “Narratives That Determine Writers and Social Justice Writing Center Work.” vol. 14, iss. 1, Praxis, 01 Jan. 2016, pp. 94-99. www.praxisuwccom/inoue-141.
Asao Inoue’s article, “Narratives That Determine Writers and Social Justice Writing Center Work” discusses how writing centers can be more inclusive of non-white students. Specifically, he wants writing centers to be “centers for revolution, for social justice work.” (Inoue). In this article Inoue posits there are “four main elements to white racial habitus” (Inoue) which act as a kind of discriminatory lense we read papers through, which disadvantage non-white students. These are: “Hyperindividualism,” “Individualized, Rational, Controlled Self,” “Rule-Governed, Contractual Relationships,” and “Clarity, Order, and Control” (Inoue). If any of these “dispositions to language seem preferable to you” (Inoue) then you have internalized “white racial habitus” (Inoue).
Inoue asks, “[W]hat significance to the individual student or her colleagues in the course who may read her draft does a student’s writing practices have if they primarily favor a rhetorical style that leans mostly on appeals to emotion and an arrangement that resists a linear structure, that is associative or random, that is unordered?”
I, honestly, question a lot of this article and am not sure I find it helpful in creating a center for “revolution” (Inoue) or for “social justice work” (Inoue) in the classroom. Perhaps I do not understand the article or the points Inoue is making, but my main question is, if we are saying whiteness is ordered, are we saying Blackness is “unordered” (Inoue)? Are we really comfortable saying Black writing “leans mostly on appeals to emotion” (Inoue)? I genuinely find this thinking to be some version of benevolent racism.
One positive take-away I found in this essay was when Inoue states, “White language privilege is our common oppression. Yes, even white people are hurt by white language supremacy, although they are given more advantages, too.” Although Inoue did not expand upon this statement, I still found it useful to consider. It reminds me of arguments I have heard where sexism and misogyny hurts men too. This rings true for me, though, I would have liked to have heard a bit more explanation for exactly how white language supremacy hurts white people.
McCoy, Shane A. “Writing for Justice in First-Year Composition (FYC)” vol. 116, Radical Teacher, Winter 2020, pp. 26-36. https://kuprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/1ik10ij/TN_cdi_gale_businessinsightsgauss_A637632038.
Shane A. McCoy’s article, “Writing for Justice in First-Year Composition,” delves into how and why teacher-scholars can and should use social justice artifacts/texts to teach FYC courses. McCoy first addresses the “should” question by eloquently stating that the academy is currently positioned to perpetuate the status quo of “neoliberal values” (McCoy 29) and writing as an extension of “‘job training’” (McCoy 29). However, by “writing for social justice” (McCoy 29) students can dismantle neoliberal agendas and identify their “personal stakes” (McCoy 29) in the issues, all while developing Metacognition, reading, writing, and revising skills. McCoy then addresses the “can” question by providing examples of how he teaches metacognition, writing, research, and revision in his classroom. I believe this article is especially useful to anyone asking themselves “How can I use social justice in my English classroom?”
Key questions to ask:
How can white teacher-scholars do this without fetishizing Black being and language?
Provide a diversity of texts and materials that highlight many experiences and issues.
- ...y no se lo tragó la tierra/...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1971), a novel made up of 14 short stories and 13 vignettes, by Tomás Rivera, a Chicano author
- Focuses on economic hardships and the physical struggles of immigrant farm labor.
- I Will Marry When I Want (1977), a play, by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, a Kenya author
- Focuses on feminism, religion, and modernity versus tradtion.
- Fences (1986), a play, by August Wilson, an American playwright
- Focuses on family connections
- Reparations (2019), a play, by Darren Canady, an American playwright
- Focuses on trauma
How can white teacher-scholars do this without making Black, African American, and non-white students feel singled out? Or requiring them to do extra intellectual and emotional labor in our classrooms?
How does neoliberalism function in our classrooms?
“[N]eoliberal values frame education ‘as job training’ where ‘writing becomes a masterable, commodified skill whose purpose is deployment in the workplace.’ Within the neoliberal logic of the contemporary university, writing that serves the purpose of ‘civic engagement, personal inquiry, exploration of unfamiliar perspectives’ all ‘become ancillary to more “profitable” ends” (McCoy 29).
How do we do it?
- Respect, Elevate, and Celebrate Black and non-white voices.
Assignment/application 1 (Adapted from English 760: Latinx w/ Dr. Marta):
Read an excerpt from ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomás Rivera
“How come we’re like this, like we’re buried alive? Either the germs eat us alive or the sun burns us up. Always some kind of sickness. And every day we work and work. For what? Poor Dad, always working so hard. I think he was born working. Like he says, barely five years old and already helping his father plant corn. All the time feeding the earth and the sun, only to one day, just like that, get struck down by the sun. And there you are, helpless. And them, begging for God’s help . . . why, God doesn’t care about us . . . I don’t think there even is . . . No, better not say it, what if Dad gets worse. Poor Dad, I guess that at least gives him some hope.” (Rivera 292)
What is the message/purpose of the story? What is the exigence? Who is the intended audience? What is the effect or impact of the story on the audience? How does this story achieve that? Is there any ethos, pathos, or logos to the story? How do those rhetorical devices further the purpose or message of the story? How do those rhetorical devices effect or impact the audience?
Assignment/application 2:
Read Fences by August Wilson
Ask students to select a passage from Fences that they find to be of interest and close-read the passage. Ask them to consider (McCoy 30):
“CORY: The whole time I was growing up . . . living in his house . . . Papa was like a shadow that followed you everywhere. It weighed on you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap around you and lay there until you couldn’t tell which one was you anymore. That shadow digging in your flesh. Trying to crawl in. Trying to live through you. Everywhere I looked, Troy Maxon was staring back at me . . . hiding under the bed . . . in the closet. I’m just saying I’ve got to find a way to get rid of that shadow, Mama.” (Wilson 1072/Act II Scene V)
- “What stood out to you as important or significant in this passage?” (McCoy 30)
- “Develop a claim on the purpose of this passage. How does the passage function in the [play]? In other words, what might be the purpose (significance) of the passage?” (McCoy 30)
- “Explain why you chose this particular passage. What did you find interesting? What in the passage appealed to you as a reader? Refer to your annotations to track your own thoughts about the passage.” (McCoy 30)
Assignment/application 3:
A free-write “activity that asks students to consider how social justice links to their fields of study” (McCoy 30).
“I ask students to free-write about social justice and discuss to what extent social justice is relevant to their majors.”
If they cannot on their own come up with how social justice relates to their field, you can ask them to Google their major and the words “social justice.” (McCoy 30).
Assignment/application 4:
Revision of Writing Project 3.
- Indigenous Remains on KU’s campus
- Non-binary bathrooms on KU’s campus
- Homelessness in Lawrence (Kansas City/St. Louis/etc.)
- Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment on campus
- Domestic Violence in Lawrence (Kansas City/St. Louis/etc.)
- Police Brutality in Lawrence (Kansas City/St. Louis/etc.)
- Issues of social justice in your hometown
- Student Voting at KU
- Hunger and food insecurity in Lawrence (Kansas City/St. Louis/etc.)
- Healthcare access/affordability in Lawrence (Kansas City/St. Louis/etc.)