Kelly Belanger GENDER AND TEACHING ACADEMIC DISCOURSE : HOW TEACHERS TALK ABOUT FACTS , ARTIFACTS

This article argues that the basic writing course described in Bartholomae and Petrosky's Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts: Theory and Method for a Reading and Writing Course (1 986) 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. Th ese teachers describe a pedagogy that is difficult to classify as either "accommodationist" or "expressivist," "masculinist" or "feminist." David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky's Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts: Theory and Method for a Reading and Writing Course (1986) has a unique status in the field of composition studies. The book outlines a basic reading and writing course taught at the University of Pittsburgh, but it is also, as Kelly Belanger is an assistant professor of English at Youngstown State University, where she teaches writing and coordinates the basic writing program. She has published articles on writing and communication in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, the Bulletin for the Association of Business Communication, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. © Journal of Basic Writing, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1994