Conflict Resolution

The reading for this week served as a good stepping stone to the start of composition research. There were two points of interest in the particular readings. The first was the term “motivating dissatisfaction.” This term was coined in the introduction of ”Composition Research Empirical Designs.” This idea of a motivating dissatisfaction to create a research experiments seems like the most effective way to create a study that will be not only useful but applicable to the parties involved.

The other excerpt that I found incredibly interesting was the intense conflict that existed in Ede’s article in regards to practice and theory. If we look at this practically, we need both the practice and theory and neither one can truly exist without the other. Without any theory to back up their methodology, practitioners would be teaching blindly. On the other hand, without practitioners trying each of these different theories, theorists would never know what was effective outside of their bubble of study.

It seemed to me that these are all key ingredients to beginning a research study. Where all of these points meet, its nexus will help steer the budding researcher into different methodologies, hypothesis, and procedures. I thought this was particularly an enlightening view of theory for me because, as a tendency mu leanings are more towards practice. When reading this, I found that a great deal of how I shift my practice from one to another comes directly from the theoretical influence I’m exposed to plus my own evaluation of what is going on in my “practice session.”

Alvarez talked about the ideas of teacher-research, which I also think goes a great team with the overlap of practice and theory. Alvarez also states that “To engage in research as an experienced teacher means that we have accepted a problem, detached it from our identity and self-esteem, and found a new way to make relevant again what we are practicing in the classroom with our students.” I think that this statement also takes into account the idea that teachers can find it hard to detach the problems of various education processes from their own ability. Just because you want to improve something isn’t admitting one’s own failure, and by creating a research study to improve technique and strategies is a direct correlation between theory and practice.

As for the writings themselves, I also appreciated the different narratives, both in Alvarez and Ede. Although, I found Ede’s much more interesting, especially as she documented the ranting of North, a very obvious proponent of theory and opponent of anything having to do with practice. I found these extreme oppositions to either side of the argument both encouraging and discouraging. How could we be expected to teach in a vacuum? The introduction was just what an introduction should be, laying the groundwork for the other readings in the book.