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Resilient Adult Learners and the Sham of Academic Writing

 

Dr. Elizabeth Hoult, Director of Knowledge Transfer of Canterbury Christ Church University UK, made a presentation  which she deliberately  titled ‘Reading Bourdieu and Cixous to recognize and escape the sham of Academic Writing'. Her talk was part of an International Seminar  on Innovative English Language Teaching organized by the Centre for English Language Teaching, University of Kerala and the Government College For Women, Trivandrum on 26th July 2010.

 

Dr. Elizabeth was the main invited foreign speaker-cum-delegate. She made profuse use quotes from her study and authoritative texts along with visuals using the PowerPoint  to illustrate her points. The following are notes prepared  from her presentation:

• We have come to recognize a new category of learners called the ‘Resilient Adult Learner'. They are successful despite 1. Traumatic events in their lives 2. Lack of capital  3. Being non-conformist. These  are  mature students in the UK who return to studies after  long years at ages ranging from 30 to 60.  They are mainly working class people who didn't have cultural, economic or symbolic capital. They did not have accents similar to that of  their Professors in universities and did not have the right connections. Some of them were non-conformists who refused to play the ‘academic game'.
• Pierre Bourdieu in his writings discussed about Higher Education and the inequalities in Education. According to him, it is not possible to remove inequality in society as it exists now. What happens is that the "Already privileged are given more capital", as in Banking. The system doesn't liberate anybody. People outside the system have no access. Each field in Higher Education is  policed by gate keepers who keep out those who disagree.
• The quantum studies done in the UK show that the rich people go to the Universities and acquire more knowledge. Yet there are those in Higher Education who survive despite lack of capital. Such people are ‘Le Miracule'. And for them what happens is a Transformational Adult Learning!. On being interviewed, this is what they had to say:

" Learning transformed their lives"

"It was so liberating… like flying"

" It was the first time since I was 19 that I had been defined in my own right…"

" You are obviously being judged with the prime of the kids in the country" (In the university). "You are  talking about the cream of the bunch. These kids have been the best everywhere".

" The whole university system is built around credentialism/exams which scare you.."…" Education is constructed…Even the reading list is constructed "…You are "positioned as a child" …Students are placed in a hierarchy: "You must remember, I am the teacher"…In such a system one must be like the child in the ‘Emperor's New Cloth' story who is not frightened by hegemonic power.

• According to Lionel Richards(?) most academic writing particularly in journals have the following characteristic:

         * Authority Moves  *  Deferential referencing   *  Third Person Voice, homogenized style  *  Apparent neutrality   *  Truth claims    * Linearity

* Apparent lack of literary features * Apparent lack of personal investment.

But those who refused to follow the defined academic style succeeded by going beyond language .

• This is what   the underprivileged who refused to write in the style of the academic journals, felt :  "…Its expanded…everything has opened up. That's what I really do enjoy. And I  just feel so privileged. It just amazes. Its almost like a Disney: Star gazing!".
• Lionel points out " Literature violates a major presentation of science: the single, unambiguous voice.." 1997. P 95 …" Writing is validated as a way of knowing" .. You present writing as a pane of glass… Holding up a window to see it clearly .. As we write we reconstruct it in language.
• The teacher of language ought to be prepared to be transformed with their students.
• Cixous' influence on the study: Some people have always defied the masculine personality.. "uncertain poetic persons!"… but the academy doesn't want it. It is worth recalling  what W.B.Yates (who decided to drop mythology)  wrote in his poem ‘A Coat':  "There is  more enterprise in walking naked".
• We need to realize that it is more honourable to strip away from our writing the clothes we wear.. without footnotes, without reference, as if making an entry on our personal diary …as if looking through a crystal where there is no centre.
• Let us not forget Salman Rushdie's reference to ‘The Wizard of Oz' which led him to become a writer…"Only when the sham is revealed that real magic is shown".
• There is nothing intrinsically evil in academic writing, yet it is a sham like all  writings are. While teaching English it is possible to help pupils understand this fact. ‘Naked writing is honourable'. But it  is also a sham.. Do include multiple types of text.

 

From the comments of the audience:

• There are many English  teachers without aptitude and the right attitude.
• English literary theory came  to the English departments  in India, at a time  when there were no real takers   for English Literature. Literary Theory helped them make English look more scientific and advanced. This is the real sham we are exhibiting.
• We need to realize that there is not one university in India which comes within the top one hundred universities in the world. It is also common knowledge that in India, at least in Kerala, merit seldom counts in getting a teaching job in the university and what really counts is ones political backing!... Now, … one can imagine what kind of academic culture such universities have. It is essentially different from the ones in Universities in Britain. Perhaps what Pierre Bourdieu said may not be applicable here… You need an entirely different framework to look at the situation!

  

About the Author

For more articles by the author Please view:

http://cpraveenpublications.blogspot.com/

 

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