Situating Composition: Composition Studies and the Politics of Location

by Lisa S. Ede

Responding to a growing pedagogical paralysis in debates over the nature and status of composition studies as an academic discipline, Lisa Ede offers a provocative inquiry into the politics of composition’s place in the academy. The result is a timely and engaging reflection on the rhetoric, ideology, and ethics of scholarship and instruction in composition studies today. Situating Composition Studies and the Politics of Location delves into some of the most vexing issues presently facing the its status in relation to English studies, the nature and consequences of the writing process movement, the uneven professionalization of composition teachers, and the widening chasm between theory and practice. Ede interrogates key moments and texts in composition’s evolution, from the writing process movement to Susan Miller’s Textual Carnivals, through the interpretive lenses of historical analysis, theoretical critique, feminist and cultural theory, and Ede’s own two decades of experiences as a teacher and writing program administrator. Questioning the narratives of progress and paradigm shifts that inform the field’s highly regarded recent theoretical studies, Ede urges scholars to carefully reconsider these claims, to honor the roles of teachers and students as more than dupes of ideology, and to more fully acknowledge—and utilize—the differences between the practice of theory and the practice of teaching. As academic hierarchies of knowledge increasingly privilege scholarship over instruction, Ede warns researchers to be cognizant of the politics and power inherent in their own location in the academy, particularly when professing to speak for teachers and students. To that end, the volume’s conclusion advocates pragmatic avenues for change and proffers topics for future discussion and debate.

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2004

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Situating Composition, Lisa Ede questions much about the politics of the location of composition studies within university institutions. She questions "ideologies of the 'new'" (Evan Watkins's term) that pervade recent histories of composition studies that narrate a progress narrative and a revolution (from process theories to social theories, for instance) that might not match up well with the actual material practices of what happens in many composition classrooms (44). She charges that as scholars in the field critique different perspectives, they all too often create caricatures of each other (50). One such critique is of the "writing process movement," a term she claims is a "floating signifier," a term that we recognize but cannot pin down (63). She expresses suspicion of theoretical terms and positions, especially when they propose a new paradigm or critique an "old" paradigm, which is often too simplistic. Ede is most interested in practice, and wants to call attention to scholarly writing as itself a practice (119). She argues that theory should be "situated practice" (128).

[Lance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though there is a kernel of goodness in this critique of theory, you have to wade through a crap load of caveats and disclaimers. There is way too much "situating" going on here. Ede makes some great points, reminding us that the classroom is far too complex to be contained by a single theory, proposing that theory should come from the ground. I think this book would have been much more effective as an ethnography, where she could actually perform her critique, rather than write a mediocre book about it.

[MarkMcgwire · Rating 3 out of 5]

took me a while, but ede's notion of situating composition is a refreshing alternative to identifying a universal approach to writing pedagogy