A Radical Presence in the Classroom:  Sequential Writing Assignments
and Social Critique.

As an English professor in a mid-western university, I continually
struggle with how we can move our traditional students from
complacency to a more radical understanding of the world.  For a
number of years, I have worked with designing writing assignments
which incorporate aspects of dialectical and critical realist thought
in order to challenge typical ways of thinking, introducing a radical
presence into the classroom.  Recently I have developed and used a
series of writing assignments about homelessness that meet students
where they are in their thinking and gradually move them toward a more
critical, dialectical understanding of this provocative issue.
Student writing samples based on these assignments will be presented
which show a progression in student understanding, and strategies for
developing other writing assignments based on dialectical thought will
be discussed.

Donald Judd
Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg, KS 66762
tel. 620-235-4697