Asao’s Comments (group member since Apr 02, 2013)

Asao’s comments from the Composition and Rhetoric group.

Most welcome, John! I appreciate the read of the book!

Hi Jessica,

I hope it's okay I chime in here. I'll second what Mya has said about the tensions in DSP. Then again, any writing assessment has such tensions, regardless of the potential course decisions or placements. At Fresno State, all choices give students university credit, and no choice is a "remedial" or "basic writing" course. In part, this is a CSU mandate. We do not remediate, which I agree with in letter, but not the spirit CSU's Chancellor's office mandated it. They say we doing because, essentially, that student must be prepared before they come to us. There are obvious problems with that. However, I do think that the stigma of remediation is often too much to overcome for many students, and affects their progress and self-efficacy. So advertising courses as not rememdial and using curricula that back up that advertising is essential to avoiding much of that stigma you mention when students choose one option over others.

But let me say something about another thing you and Mya mention, about choosing and essentially the validity of such choices by early students. I appreciate how Mya has put it in her response: "The issue is not 'who is right' but on what constructs of writing are such decisions being made." I'd add a nuance here. One construct that often gets too underplayed i such decisions like placement is non-cognitive dimensions of students, such as self-efficacy, happiness, a sense of agency, etc. In fact, I'd argue that most of the Framework of Success in Postsecondary Writing are non-cognitive in nature, not cognitive, such as are typical writing constructs. So in this way of thinking through the validity of a student's course self-placement, it seems reasonable to think that if she chooses a course and fails that course, she STILL may have made a highly valid choice if we understand validity of that choice as not simply determined by things like course grades or passing rates. Perhaps persistence is better, or her own level of happiness with the course choice she made, or her own sense of what she learned from making a choice that didn't equate to a passing grade. Lots to be learned in that scenario and I think often more than if she were placed by other means outside her own agency and choosing.

Nice discussion. Peace.

-- Asao

Hi John,

What a really good set of questions. Thank you for reading so carefully. I agree with your concerns and the questions your raise about treating a student only as a product of an educational system and as an agent that is manipulated into blaming herself or taking on the faults of the system by self-placing into a course (for whatever reason) are always -- in a broad sense -- tensions in any assessment. Don't you think? In one way, this is really the same Freirian problem that he asks his students to confront by "problematizing their existential situations," confronting the two realms that co-construct human agency and experience: the social (structural, like DSP systems) and the individual (the student making decisions based on personal reflection and knowledge of her history).

I love the way you say, "in directed-self placement we wouldn't want to reinforce the idea that education is something that happens to students." I agree in the ideal, but do you think this is the common experience of students? Does education happen to them? And if so, or if there is a tension between being educated by systems that are white and middle class and learning as a raced, gendered, and classed agency-filled experience of an individual, then how might a DSP process acknowledge these tensions? How does it still fulfill the goals set out for the program? How do we meet our students where they are when they come to the DSP process?

Great discussion! Thank John. I'm curious what others think.

P.S. Bonilla-Silva should be read by all educators. Good stuff!

Hi Jessica,

Would love to! We can do it any number of ways, asynchronously, by Twitter, or on this forum. It's up to you and the others. Whatever works best and will allow all who wish to participate.

peace.

-- Asao

Hi all,

First, thank you so much for reading our book. Mya and I thought, if you were interested, we'd love to have a Q&A about the book -- that is, if anyone is interested. Perhaps you've moved on from our book, but if not, we'd love to hear your input and discuss with you anything the book raised for you.

Again, many thanks for reading and discussing our book. I know I speak for Mya as well when I say we are deeply grateful for your careful and thoughtful discussion on the book.

Peace.

-- Asao B. Inoue