| This dissertation explores the relationship between the personal and the political in the composition classroom by examining the writing of three pedagogic theorists: Lad Tobin, Ira Shor, and bell hooks. The research focuses on a rhetorical examination of specific texts in order to surface dissonances and reinforcements between theory, practice, and writing style. The researcher also proposes the concept of the oblique rhetorical challenge as a way to introduce strong political perspectives into a rhetoric and composition classroom in a fashion that navigates around the pitfalls of two more common positions concerning political arguments and the classroom: one holds that all highly charged political perspectives should be kept out of the classroom in order to protect students and the opposite view holds that the teacher's political views should be out in front in order to protect students. |
