Jess Pauszek Composition Pedagogy Patrick Berry October 2, 2013 Narrating Our Work I was struck by the readings

this week, in a way that doesnt always happen. What I noticed throughout each of Sondra Perls texts, Felt Sense Writing With the Body, Facing the Other, and Research as a Recursive Process was that I was constantly invested in the readings and energized by the writing, especially the narration. Perl discusses how her own writing changed throughout the years moving from the distance of a third person research to a more personal stance and tone (6). She describes how her motivations as a scholar shifted from generalizable data toward her desire to tell stories (6). In her versions of telling stories, I found myself getting that jolt of enthusiasm a new project brings, which makes you want to research, read, and write a little more. To explain how this happened, I want to go through a couple moments from her text and then think through the implications of a couple snapshots for my own work. As I read about Perls trip to Austria, I was fascinated by how she constantly positioned and repositioned her ethics and ethical questions as a professor: What am I teaching in these courses? What am I looking to impart to these teachers? How important are the ethical questions that concern me (177)? In these moments, she questions herself about the motivations she has as a teacher. I see this is as an important reminder for us to always (re)think about our positionalities as teachers. She admits her prejudices that she never wanted to learn German nor even travel to Austria, but she is also careful in how she approaches her class because she wonders how they will take her admission as a Jew and her distaste for all things German. To me, whether they are moments as poignant as this, or

even thinking through why I think a connection to community is important, teachers must think about the ethics of the work we do, who is involved, and to what end. For me, Perls stories of Austria represent a moment where her personal life has been mediated by the social (the war, a difference in cultures, a cross-cultural teaching opportunity). Indeed, she sees herself as being a part of a cultural system of stories, histories, and experiences that have deeply affected her sense of self, her writing (perhaps through her silence), and her teaching. Im interested in these ideas because I feel as if felt sense is largely a personal endeavor that can seem very individualistic (thus removed from others) though it still can have connections to larger social structures later on (when your embodied writing interacts with and is shared with a public beyond yourself). Perhaps even our own felt sense is mediated by the social constructions around us? Does our gender, race, class, sexuality, religionas constructed within societycome into play with felt sense, or is felt sense supposed to be a place where those issues destabilized and forgotten? Finally, I want to pick up on a point that Perl mentions in her Research as a Recursive Process. She describes her goal as a researcher as this: I wanted, in other words, to understand the life of classrooms and of writers as they unfolded, as they were lived and experienced. I wanted to be immersed in the settings in which these events occurred (3). Although Perl writes this to about her desire to research the composing processes of students, I see this same idea as integral to my own work and push for community engagement. I value writing that explores multiple literacies, lived experiences, and various embodied (physical, racial, classed, gendered, etc) understandings of the world around us. Even more, though, I believe that if weas teachers and students broaden the

scope of who we interact with and who (and what) we care to know about, writing can be used as a means for social change. To use Perls words, as a teacher of composition, I want to com[e] to know the people and what their lives and learning meant to them and be immersed in the settings in which these events occurred. Here, Perl is talking about connecting with students on a more humane levelcaring about their experiences beyond the classroom. I would agree with her and even extend this to my own belief that we should also connect individual stories to the larger communities around us outside of the university. What would it mean to care about the lived experiences of factory workers, veterans, inmates, pastors, etc? These are broad categories indeed, but my point is to suggest that I see a value in being attentive both to the individuals inside our classrooms as well as those beyond the walls of academe. In many ways, they have much in common; however, the physical construction of a university itself challenges who may enter, be heard, be published, be an author, a writer. As such, we lose those voicesand are too often left to stay in a world of our own, where university students may not know that some Syracuse neighborhoods have census estimates of 47% of people living below poverty. Of course, poverty factors into issues with education, access to resources and literacy, etc. I often think about why I want students should to care about these issues in a composition class, and I think it comes back to my belief that the content of writing is our experiences lived, researched, imaginary, etc. And, as Perl stated, its also about our human-ness, or connections to each other. But its also an ethical question for me to continue thinking through as I think about what Im teaching, what I want to impart on students, and what ethics should be concerned in my teaching.