College Composition and Communication Sep 2023

Engaging Assessment Counterstories through a Cultural Rhetorics Framework

Stephanie West-Puckett ; Nicole I. Caswell ; William P. Banks

Abstract

Cultural rhetorics—as orientation, methodology, and practice—has made meaningful contributions to writing pedagogy (Brooks-Gillies et al.; Cedillo and Bratta; Baker-Bell; Cedillo et al.; Cobos et al.; Condon and Young; Powell). Despite these contributions, classroom teachers and writing program administrators can struggle to conceptualize assessment beyond bureaucratic practice and their role in assessment beyond standing in loco for the institution. To more fully realize the potential of cultural rhetorics in our classrooms and programs, the field needs assessment models that seek to uncover the counterstories of writing and meaning-making. Our work, at the intersections of queer rhetorics and writing assessment, provides a theoretical framework called Queer Validity Inquiry (QVI) that disrupts stock stories of success—a success that is always available to some at the expense of others. Through four diffractive lenses—failure, affectivity, identity, and materiality—QVI prompts us to determine what questions about student writers and their writing intrigue us, why we care about them, and whose interests are being served by those questions.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2023-09-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc202332674
CompPile
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
cultural rhetorics writing pedagogy assessment writing program administration gender and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Aguilar (2025)
    AI Writing Is Always Embodied: Building a Critical Awareness of the Invisible L…
    College Composition and Communication
  2. (2024)
    Symposium: The Homosexual Imagination: A Fifty-Year Retrospective
    College English

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