Course Philosophy

I design this and every course based on current pedagogical theory as well as my personal beliefs about teaching and scholarship. The works of Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Vygotsky lead me to believe that learning takes place through social interaction. For this reason, active in-class discussion is essential by every class member. To facilitate this socially-based learning, students in this class will read and share their writings with each other. The work of other people in this course is just as valuable as works published by professional authors, and we will treat it as such. For this reason, adequate time will be allocated to read and discuss everyone’s writing for the class. As the teacher of this course, I will strive to make sure that all voices are heard and that no one voice is privileged, not even my own voice. Following the work of Kenneth Bruffee, Lisa Ede, and Andrea Lunsford, I’ll ask students in this course to work collaboratively on some projects to increase  opportunities for dialogic thought.

Course Goals

By the end of English 746: Narrative Research, students enrolled in the course should achieve the following goals:

• gain insight into the fundamental value of writing narratives and using narratives as a tool for reflection

• improve their abilities as a writer of stories

• improve their ability to frame narratives and do relevant bibliographic research

• consider the potential narrative research might hold for a dissertation project

• write and revise a narrative research paper of high quality

Course Expectations

This is a graduate seminar which will demand a high commitment from you as a student. If you want to do well in this course, I expect you to:

• grow as a scholar
• work hard
• speak regularly in class
• read a lot
• do all the work assigned
• attend class
• try your best
• work well with others
• keep an open mind
• be courteous
• improve yourself as a teacher
• learn as much as you can
• have some fun

Graduate students who meet all these very basic expectations will do well in this course.