Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Belanoff, Pat | Marcelo, Leon B. | Dunn, Patricia | Denny, Harry | Yood, Jessica
Date
2011-12-01
Keywords
Rhetoric--Philosophy of education--History of education | Dialectic, John Dewey, Peter Elbow, Reflective Thinking, Uncertainty, William Perry
Department
Department of English
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71338
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
The fostering of a dialectic between Certainty and Uncertainty and the perspectives of reality and "truth" that each engenders is necessary for writing and the teaching of writing. This necessity arises from the fact that a privileging of either extreme, at the expense of the other, is antithetical to work for the progress of not simply the teaching of writing but of the greater society and culture to which it would serve. Whether the pursuit of Certainty that culminated in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America in the birth of "Current-Traditional Rhetoric" or, conversely, the pursuit of Uncertainty that spread throughout academia during the "Post-Modern" era, either choice is detrimental to those who would strive for that progress within academic writing instruction and beyond. In the end, both possibilities serve the continuation and profusion of the status quo. The strict worship of either of these supposed contraries begets the very same dualistic, "black or white" perceptions. Through my research, I explore those separate pursuits and then examine the possibilities for founding this crucial dialectic between them. I also investigate not simply how I have attempted to pursue that dialectic in my own writing classes but also the results of those attempts. | 257 pages
Recommended Citation
Marcelo, Leon Becker, "The Uncertainty of Certainty: Exploring a Dialectic" (2011). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 544.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/544