Now here is where you really strike a chord with me. Getting
students engaged with their writing is for me a fundamental goal. just
about everything I do in the classroom is geared to get students
interested in their work and challenged by it at the same time, a tough
balance. But this is exactly what I meant a few posts ago when I said
that creating "real" learning contexts is a often a complex process.
Much of the work I am doing right now envolves historicizing terms
that we bandy around on a daily basis like multiculturalism, literacy,
empowerment, and decentered. I'm sensitive to squishy terms like
"real" that get used to justify a host of practices, when the users really
mean something much more specific. The problem comes when the term is
used one way and received in other ways.
Thanks for clarifying.
cheers,
jrg