An Alternate Pragmatism for Going Public

by Jim Webber

Overview

An Alternate Pragmatism for Going Public interrogates composition’s most prominent responses to contemporary K-16 education reform. By “going public,” teachers, scholars, and administrators rightfully reassert their expertise against corporate-political standards and assessments like the Common Core, Complete College America, and the Collegiate Learning Assessment. However, author Jim Webber shows that composition’s professional imperative for self-defense only partly fulfils the broader aims of “going public,” which include fostering public participation that can assess and potentially affirm the public good of professional judgment.

Drawing on the pragmatic/democratic tradition, Webber envisions an alternate rhetoric of professionalism, one that not only reasserts compositionists’ expertise but also expands opportunities for publics to authorize this expertise. While this public inquiry and engagement may not safeguard professional standing against neoliberal reform, it reorients composition toward an equally important goal, enabling publics to gauge the adequacy of the educational standardization so often advocated by contemporary reform.

An Alternate Pragmatism for Going Public shows how public engagement can serve composition’s efforts related to “going public.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607326533
Publisher:	Utah State University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2018
Edition description:	1
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jim Webber is an assistant professor of English at the University of Nevada, Rano.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 3

1 "Is Strategic Instrumentalism the Best We Can Do?" 11

2 Bureaucracy, "Lightness," and Discontent 44

3 Reframing, Prophetic Pragmatism, and Artful Critique 76

4 Being There, Going Public, and "The Problem of the Public" 109

5 An Ethics of Dissent 141

Reference 163

About the Author 175

Index 177

Editorial Reviews

Jim Webber is an assistant professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno.

From the Publisher