Discusses beliefs about knowledge, power, authority, and responsibility. Considers the difficulties these formulations create for women writers and how they are similar for student writers. Suggests strategies for infusing personal understandings with professional/academic writings. (SR)

Describes how one English teacher, through the study of philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, created a classroom in which teacher authority was earned through expert knowledge. Argues that reading should be presented as a kind of conversation. Discusses class activities concerning Toni Morrison's novel, "Sula." (HB)

The limitations of the particular communicative situation in the foreign language classroom, in which students spend much of their time silent while the teacher speaks, need to be recognized before applying new teaching techniques. The profession must find new ways to promote the need, the desire, and the pleasure of communicating. (MSE)

A writing teacher, troubled by the hierarchical, authoritarian design of his courses, restructured his writing classes to alter the dynamics of authority in the classroom. The idea was rooted both in Paulo Freire's writings and in the simple notion that students should be designing their own writing tasks. First, students brainstormed possible…

Describes political definitions and forms of power in the modern era. Discusses echoes lingering from the collision between early American linguistics and the late black rebellion against racism. Argues that, despite hopes of attaining democracy through language, there remains little democracy in language. (HB)

To understand and deal with student behavior, we must understand that most behavior is caused by objects and events in the world around the student; that students have learned personal ways of relating to those objects and events; and that in a setting like a school it is easier and more productive to alter those objects and events than to change…