This dissertation articulates the theoretical and pragmatic foundations of a rhetorical approach to psychotherapy; an approach, that is, which is informed by the worldview, concerns, and methodologies of the discipline of rhetoric. Rhetoric—which originated in ancient Greece—long predates psychotherapy in aiming to understand the workings of influence or persuasion, both as it occurs between persons and within persons (i.e., self-persuasion). Persuasion is of critical importance to psychotherapy not only because it is instrumental in producing change in clients, but because it is an ongoing facet of everyday life, accounting for a substantial portion of why persons behave as they do. Despite the apparent commonalities between rhetoric and psychotherapy, the literature on psychotherapy contains few references to—and fewer substantive explorations of—rhetorical works, concepts, and strategies. Moreover, the majority of works on psychotherapy which do refer to rhetoric neglect to root their claims in a rhetorical understanding of the psychology of the individual. Integrating concepts drawn from rhetoric with contemporary psychological theories of emotion, cognition, and psychopathology, this dissertation offers, first of all, a construction of the individual as a rhetorical subject, or as a being whose psychological capacities are organized to facilitate the sending and delivery of messages, and the exertion and reception of influence. Secondly, this dissertation demonstrates how rhetorical insights and procedures can help psychotherapists meet the daily, pragmatic demands of doing psychotherapy. Accordingly, this dissertation culminates in a structured, clinically-oriented description of how psychotherapy may be carried out according to rhetorical principles. The model for psychotherapy proposed here is intended to enable clinicians to envision a rhetorical framework or logic for psychotherapy cases, as well as to engage clients in (a) symptom-relieving rhetorical exchanges and (b) the work of developing greater rhetorical (self)understanding and proficiency. In articulating a model for psychotherapy, emphasis is placed on the role of argumentation, both as it is practiced by clients and by therapists. It is suggested that the fundamental mechanism of healing—that is, the essential occurrence to which therapeutic effects are due—is carefully constructed, psycho-socially apt, symptom-targeted argumentation.

In the literature of writing centers, and in particular the literature around online peer tutoring, the voices of the tutors themselves are conspicuously silent. We read the perspectives of writing center administrators, but not those of the people actually providing the service. As administrators of writing centers, we are at a loss as we attempt to prepare our tutors for the online environment because there is little data that addresses the tutors' perceptions of what it is like to conduct a tutorial in a virtual environment. Thus, we are left with theory and practice that is little more than an adaptation of face-to-face tutoring pedagogy. This study began with the premise that the perceptions of peer tutors of their tutoring experiences, especially those experiences in the online tutoring environment, are a valuable resource. To tap this resource, this study asked tutors to reflect on their perceptions of the online tutoring environment, their perceptions of their own tutoring in the online tutoring environment, and their perceptions of any changes they felt necessary to accommodate the online tutoring environment. This was a situated exploratory study conducted at the Washington State University Vancouver Writing Center, which focused on 4 tutors at that site. It drew on Jim Bell's (2001) “reflection on practice” model in which peer tutors reflect on their face-to-face tutoring practices. The goal of this study was to address the gaps in the literature of tutor training through an understanding of the perceptions of these tutors as they negotiate tutoring online. Data for this study was collected over a period of two semesters. The researcher took the role of participant/observer/interviewer for these semesters. Interviews with tutors were audio taped, transcribed, and coded according to a scheme created from the transcripts. The significance of this study is the inclusion of the often silent voices of the tutors who perform online peer tutoring in the body of literature covering that task. It presents first-hand perceptions of online tutoring that can add to our understanding of the nature of online tutoring and, in turn, assist in the development of training programs for peer tutors.

In educational and instructional technology communities, learning objects have generated a great deal of interest in recent years. The learning object paradigm promises many benefits, most of which have yet to be realized. This dissertation proposes approaches for using learning objects outside of the currently dominant approach, which could be characterized as course-centric and informed by skills training, knowledge-transfer, and a content-delivery orientation. The dissertation examines ways that objects can be used to support learners in two key areas central to the concerns of English departments: critical thinking and development of competence in academic (and other) discourses. I argue against the “seamless course” model of content-delivery in favor of an approach that capitalizes on the modular, component architecture of learning objects by letting learners access and manipulate objects at a granular level. Objects that are searchable, shareable, versionable and annotated provide new ways to represent, manipulate and evaluate structural knowledge, and to tie learning content to discursive knowledge. An ongoing concern throughout the dissertation is the necessary and fruitful bridging of the divide between education and training. It is argued that such a bridge is useful for object initiatives to integrate concept-learning, problem-solving, critical thinking, and the social construction of knowledge.

This study is based on in-depth interviews with seven graduate students of literature who teach for a large research university, and the main concern is with their personal experiences and perspectives as they develop as teachers and students. How do they see themselves as readers and critics of literature? How do they see themselves as instructors of writing? The interviews focus on the reading, writing, and educational histories of these seven individuals, as well as on their impressions of their current classrooms: those they enter as students and those they enter as teachers. What stories do they have to tell? In addition to considering the seven participants as individual teachers and students, this study also focuses on their relationships with the teaching community within which they work. According to these seven teachers, how does their program construct the image of a writing teacher? Of a writing classroom? Of a writing assignment? How do those images align with previous ones held by the seven teachers? What adaptations and alterations take place? How might those changes relate to their study of literature? Some writers (Bishop 1995, Gale, Sullivan 1989) have portrayed the graduate literature classroom as pedagogically antithetical to certain writing classrooms, and this study investigates the oppositions and connections between those two spaces. Ultimately, this study also speaks to the complex disciplinary relationship between the fields of literary studies and composition. The participants provide a unique perspective on the relationship, and one that has been given little attention in other work. At times the difference between the two fields has been considered a cultural one (Elbow 2002, Moran 1995), necessitating different identities. But the participants here do not talk of shifting identities, or of cultural differences. Instead, their concerns with studying literature overlap with their concerns about teaching writing.

This project is designed to examine and, therefore, hopefully understand how and why personal, reflective writing is used in business communication classes. Personal, reflective writing is treated differently in business communication classes than it is in management classes, yet management theory is greatly influential in the development of business communication as an academic field. In management courses, mostly those with a leadership focus, personal, reflective writing is used as a way to help students identify personal values and goals and then connect those personal discoveries to professional values and goals. In leadership textbooks especially, evidence of personal, reflective writing exercises, such as the personal mission statement, is extensive, suggesting that personal development is integral to professional development, to becoming a manager and leader. Trade books designed to help readers improve and grow as managers and leaders also confirm this, as most books from the genre include personal, reflective writing exercises that are similar to those found in textbooks. However, in business communication textbooks personal, reflective writing exercises are different. To understand better how personal, reflective writing exercises are used in business communication as well as in its affecting discipline of management, this dissertation project has three research foci. They are: a content analysis of business communication and management textbook and business/leadership trade book personal, reflective writing exercises; a brief survey of Association of Business Communication members about their uses of using personal, reflective writing exercises in their classes; and, last, interviews with instructors of management in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts about their uses of personal, reflective writing in their classes. Results of each study and their implications are discussed.

This study problematizes the literacy practices of a second-year, Japanese language classroom at a small women's college. Drawing on critical perspectives on language, literacy and d/Discourse (Gee, 1990)—in particular, on sociocultural and poststructural theories—this study discusses the joint actions of a classroom teacher and her students. Using Fairclough's (1992b) model of critical discourse analysis as an analytical tool combined with the methodology of critical ethnography, this study closely examines classroom interactions through moment-by-moment analysis of numerous literacy events. Through year-long ethnographic fieldwork and two subsequent years of dialogue with the teacher, I chose to focus my study on “moments of tension.” I selected five “critical moments” when diversions from the teacher's lesson agenda were observed during the classroom literacy events. The dynamic interplay among the texts, the students' identities and the teacher's discourses inspired those critical moments. They were moments when both the teacher and the students struggled to defend what they believed as true and attempted to inhabit ideal subject positions against textual representations. My use of critical discourse analysis revealed that, in general, the students drew from the dominant discourses that the teacher had provided so that they could successfully participate and make sense of the literacy events. However, when the texts represented a reality or truth that challenged the students' beliefs about their identity and/or ontology, the students resisted such representations and “disrupted” the dominant classroom discourse by drawing on counter-discourses. Similarly, when the students' counter-discourses challenged the teacher's ontology and/or identity, she resisted taking up those discourses and tried to normalize the moments by deflecting the issues at hand and by withdrawing from the “intersection of the discourses” rather than opting to facilitate a dialogue about competing discourses. This study argues that these moments of tension displayed how students contributed significantly to the production of knowledge in the classroom. They point out how students exercise their agency and take up positions as “knowers” that align with their sense of self. My analysis also allows me to draw implications for the possibility of critical literacy practices in a FL classroom.

This dissertation combines research in neuroscience, psychology, inter-cultural communication, and teaching with technology to envision a more balanced approach to teaching writing. Many composition scholars have proposed theories about the cognitive processes that support writing, and have suggested pedagogies based in these theories, but too often this work has evolved in isolation from the research carried out in other fields. I hope that by taking this interdisciplinary approach, I can rough out some avenues for fruitful future exploration and lay to rest some misperceptions that currently hinder our teaching. I introduce this study by sharing a brief literacy narrative, and then in Chapter One lay out the range of theories held in the composition community about writing, learning, and thinking processes. In Chapter Two, I examine how Multiple Intelligence (MI) Theory can add to our understanding these processes, and consider recent attention to cultural context. China stands out as a particularly useful example by demonstrating very a different but effective pedagogy. Recent neuroscience research supports MI Theory, and I consider how it explains the existence of multiple intelligences in Chapter Three. In Chapter Four I shift to more practical concerns; the media required by non-verbal intelligences are hard to bring into classrooms, but computer technology offers solutions to some of these difficulties. I discuss my own experiences designing an on-line writing tutorial as an example of how neuroscience can be applied to teaching with technology, then describe an introductory literature class in which I used technology to address multiple intelligences. I suggest paths of further inquiry, identifying gaps in current research on teaching with technology. When discussing computer technology, we must ensure that students can cross the “digital divide.” I look at recent studies of access to computers and the internet; analysis of these results gives a clearer picture of how we might ensure that technology serves our students, rather than acting as another stumbling block. To close, this study looks forward, suggesting questions to be addressed in the future, as well as practical steps teachers can take now, to begin addressing multiple intelligences in their college writing classrooms.

In this dissertation, I explore this question: why are students silent? My interest was sparked by the stories most teachers have heard and told—that “quiet students” are shy, resistant, hostile. While discourses focusing on the politics of silencing are critical, we also need to consider how students see their own silences. This study provides alternate visions of silence as imagined by students. The project draws on many sources to explore silence, including the dominant critical perspectives represented in teaching narratives and feminist and cultural theories, as well as my own experiences that shape my teaching and this research. In addition to my own autoethnography and the thinking of scholars in various fields, the study focuses on the perspectives of students. Drawing on written reflections and interviews with five students, I examine students' vision of the influence of teachers and pedagogies on the decisions to speak or be silent. Often, practices designed to invite students' speaking (requirements, etc.) are experienced as silencing. Students suggest they are more encouraged to speak by “smaller gestures”—the cultivation of teacher-student relationships, a teacher's presentation of “self,” and focused attention to how questions are asked and responded to. Such efforts positively alter the dynamics of power, knowledge, and authority. I examine the intersections of identity and community and their impact on a student's speaking or silence. Many cite the “openness” of the community and how speaking invites evaluation of one's response, intelligence, identity. This is troubling, but not because they fear conflict. Rather, they perceive such interactions as demanding risky self-revelation in anonymous communities; they are conscious of the lessons about voice and audience we try to teach in writing classes. Finally, I investigates the alternate constructions these students use to understand classroom silence, including the communal sense that silence is not necessarily problematic. Instead it can provide space for intellectual work through internal dialogue. This research suggests possibilities for moving students “beyond silence.” But it also leads me to conclude that we should work to foster generative silences as well as dialogue in our classes.

I set out to experiment and justify the use of a new theory called Negative Harmony in 21st century music. Negative Harmony is a musical avenue from which composers can glean new tones within traditional music theory rules. I took inspiration from the current leading authority on the topic, Jacob Collier, as well as older scholars from the 20th century, such as Ernst Levy and George Rochberg. I conducted research on the theory by finding its relation to major and minor chords, and how these mirrored chords worked from a theory standpoint. I then composed two original works, one piano piece and one piece for SATB choir and piano. I aimed to find the best balance between the unfamiliar negative chords and the familiar positive chords. I then looked to justify the use of this theory through the writings of scholars and modern music listeners and casual music makers.

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