In Bartholomae’s article, “Writing With Teachers” he discusses power in the classroom and authorship of students. He says, “There is no better way to investigate the transmission of power, tradition and authority than by asking students to do what academics do: work with the past, with key texts; working with other’s terms; struggling with the problems of quotation. . . where one version of a student’s relationship to the past is represented with commentary of his own” (66)? Although I don’t totally disagree with this statement, I think that advances in technology allow us to move beyond this method. Traditionally the best way to learn was to study and mimic the writing style of those who came before us. Those writers, who dominated literary canons were usually very similar to each other (education, class, race, and gender). These people held/hold power because of the consistent study (see value) of the work that they produced. Academics have always “work[ed] with the past, with key texts; work[ed]with other’s terms.” As time passed, institutions began to recognize the value in the work of people who sat on the other side of the those people. I think the best way to transmit power to students, especially those who aren’t “like” the “classics” is by introducing them to works by people like them. By recognizing the value of people like them through critical study of their texts, students see and experience how possible non-standard authorship is.
I mentioned technology earlier, and should probably note its relevance here 😉 There are so many incredible non-standard voices that are contributing to important conversations that it seems useful to share with the students, people like them who are contributing to “text.” Of course this means expanding the definition of “text” and maybe reading voices via Twitter (maybe). In class I mentioned digital conversations and its relation to the articles we’re reading, and my students were really excited about it. I used #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou to encourage them to recognize the power in their voices. I’m not sure if it worked. I’m not sure if this is clear. Are you still there?