The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-2025

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Styleguide

mla

Degree Name

English: M.A.

Department

English

College

College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

James Heiman

Second Advisor

Matt Barton

Third Advisor

Kristian Twombly

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

Autobiography, Autoethnography, Composition Pedagogy, Critical Reflection, Performance, Music

Abstract

Despite a disciplinary shift toward social-epistemic pedagogy, college composition remains entrenched in paradigmatic assumptions that tend toward an implicit enforcement of English as correctness and compliance rather than critical engagement. Students in the classroom have learned throughout their academic careers how to perform the role of “student,” which seems a continuously difficult paradigm to disrupt, especially as a new instructor. To challenge this static paradigm in the classroom, I investigate how my assumptions and biases inform my teaching. Am I doing the work necessary to live up to the pedagogical values I claim to hold? Stephen Brookfield offers autobiography as a way for teachers to better understand their students by reflecting on their own experiences as learners. By investigating moments of vulnerable learning, instructors can occupy a similar role to their students. Through autobiographies supplemented by teaching journals, this thesis will examine my experiences as a writer, tutor, and teacher, exploring how my biases contribute to maintaining rigid classroom dynamics. To better encounter vulnerability, I engage with a central aspect of my journey as a learner: my experience as a music performer. By investigating my autobiography as a musician, a space where I have embraced vulnerability, I find ways to similarly embrace the vulnerable performance of being a teacher. This thesis will model the multifaceted process of exploring one’s autobiography as a tool for critical reflection and connection in the classroom.

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