Ritter, Kelly. “Before Mina Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale, 1920-1960.” CCC 60.1 (2008): 12-45.
Abstract:
This article examines Yale’s “Awkward Squad” of basic writers between 1920 and 1960. Using archival materials that illustrate the socioeconomic conditions of this early, “pre-Shaughnessy” site of remedial writing instruction, I argue for a re-definition of basic in composition studies using local, institutional values rather than generic standards of correctness applied uniformly to all colleges and universities.
Keywords:
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Abstract:
This article argues that mid-1970s discourses of literacy crisis prompted a problematic shift toward color-blind ideologies of language and literacy within both disciplinary and institutional discussions of writing instruction for “high-risk” minority students. It further argues that this shift has continuing import for contemporary antiracist writing instruction.
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Trainor, Jennifer Seibel. “The Emotioned Power of Racism: An Ethnographic Portrait of an All-White High School.” CCC 60.1 (2008): 82-112.
Abstract
This article explores the emotioned dimensions of racist discourses at an all-white public high school. I argue that students’ racist assertions do not always or even often originate in students’ racist attitudes or belief. Instead, racist language functions metaphorically, connecting common racist ideas to nonracist feelings, values, beliefs, and associations that are learned in the routine practices and culture of school.
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