“Situatedness… refers to the ability to respond to specific situations rather than rely on foundational principals or rules” (Breuch 130).
Reading through Post-Process theory reminded me a lot of listening to astrophysicists talk about the speed of light and what it would be like to actually travel that fast. I’ve heard it described as “following the line of chalk.”
If we start to think about where writing happens on a very physical level, it has always already happened; we don’t have writing until it is physically written. The Post-Process idea seems to be focused on the impermanence of time and space, suggesting that the context and conditions of writing are always shifting therefore the writing itself will never be “complete”.
Seeing writing as public, interpretive, and situated places all writing on the other side of the chalk – on the edge of the speed of light. Nearly all of the conditions laid out in Post-Process are constantly changing based on audience and the writer’s relationship to the audience in both time and space. And it seems that the teacher’s role is to hold the chalk. We adjust our teaching styles to the situation and context of our experience.
Professor Schwartz shared an anecdote with me a few months back about the way he used to teach Composition. He would come into the class with nothing prepared and build a lesson based on whatever was around in the classroom (e.g. if someone left a worksheet from a previous class). This might be an example of Post-Process teaching, although I’m not sure how effective it actually was.
I guess what I’m getting at (and what Breuch would probably agree with) is that this concept is better off as philosophy, the same way travelling at the speed of light at this point is better off as theory, or that following the line of chalk is better off as a metaphor. In a very practical sense, these ideas don’t do much in the classroom. Early writers need to believe there is a permanence/determinate value to their writing so they can build themselves up to understand why, in reality, there really isn’t anything permanent/determinate about it.