From: NLerner@mcp.eduTo: "Writing Center Mailing List" <wcenter@lyris.acs.ttu.edu>
Subject: [wcenter] New Theories?
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 09:25:54 -0500
I'll take a shot at the "where-are-the-new-theories" question: I'm not quite sure of this charge. I open a book like _Intersections: Theory-Practice in the Writing Center_ and just about each chapter uses a different theoretical lens to better understand our work. And I know that Beth Boquet is using acoustic and sound theory to articulate writing center work and that Nancy Grimm's latest book tries to understand our work via postmodern theory. If theory is a lens for viewing the world (and a lens that's as visible as possible to the viewer--as opposed to ideology), much of the writing center literature in the last 10 years has tried out a variety of lenses.
On the other hand, perhaps we're doing what Terry Riley warned us about in his WCJ article a few years back--that by creating disciplinary boundaries we narrow the ways we might see our work. Instead of looking outside for understanding, we look inward (and I'm not talking about self reflection).
But perhaps what Arial was asking was why our practice doesn't quite keep up with our theory. That, to me, is the more fundamental question (assuming it's true). Has the writing center practice of today changed fundamentally from the writing center of, say, 25 years ago?
Neal Lerner