GENDER AND TEACHING ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: HOW TEACHERS TALK ABOUT "FACTS, ARTIFACTS, AND COUNTERF...

<p>This article argues that the basic writing course described in Bartholomae and Petrosky's Facts, Artifacts, and Counteracts: Theory and Method for a Reading and Writing Course (1986) is a combination of what might be perceived as "masculinist" and "feminist" dimensions. Based upon self-descriptions given by ten teachers using a Facts approach, the teachers are classified into four gender-typed categories: "masculine," "feminine," "androgynous," and "undifferentiated." Interview data suggest that the teachers who perceived themselves in the most masculine terms emphasized the "masculinist" aspects of the course; the teachers who described themselves in primarily feminine or androgynous terms focused on what may be seen as the "feminist" aspects of the course. Finally, the self-described androgynous individuals took it upon themselves creatively to shape and reshape their interpretations of the course. These teachers describe a pedagogy that is difficult to classify as either "accommodationist" or "expressivist," "masculinist" or "feminist."</p>