Rewriting Resistance to Social Justice Pedagogies

This book argues that composition studies has not adequately addressed the complex contexts and causes of student resistance. The author highlights ways for instructors to understand the origins and purpose for a student’s resistance, before giving students the tools to uncover and investigate their reasons for resistance themselves.

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Resistance to feminist, queer, and antiracist pedagogies can take many forms in the composition class: silence during class discussion; tepid, bland writing that fails to engage with course content; refusal to engage with feminist and queer ideas; open and direct challenges to professors’ authority. Rewriting Resistance to Social Justice Pedagogies argues that composition studies has not adequately addressed the complex and deeply local contexts and causes of resistance. Therefore, the author argues that resistance research must first understand the origins and purpose for a student’s resistance, interrogating the language used to name and describe students who resist. Composition instructors must then give students the tools to uncover and investigate their reasons for resistance themselves, challenging students to continually interrogate their resistances. This book utilizes feminist composition pedagogies, masculinity studies, and queer pedagogies to engage student resistance in the writing classroom.