I read an article!

I'm sorry, I'm very bad with titles. See above.

Okay, so my exploratory question is driven from several different places, and I am having a hard time working out how to word it concisely, so perhaps through this explanation of the article I read I can get a better idea of what I'm looking for. I'm interested in student identity and how writing is a form of empowerment, though I realize those are way too large of issues, so I wanted to focus on how my own identity affects them (being that I interact with my students in an unbalanced power structure) and what I can do to help them facilitate their own growth. My focus is going to be on LGBQT(etc) issues of identity raised in the classroom and what it means for myself to be open about my identity and how that affects the identities of my students, their writing, and how they perceive the class.

I read: Exploring Sexual Identity: Coming to Terms with Homosexuality through a Sophomore–Level, Argumentative Composition Course by Jean A. Wagner and she/he actually brought up a writing exercise that I am using for my second, exploratory essay that I am assigning: forcing the students to argue what they don't believe. While this article did not bring up the issues of identity that I am looking for (Though I think I found a dissertation that does! Still have to read it, though) I think this is a good place to start. I've had students write in the past about homosexuality to greater or lesser success, and as a human being it was hard to keep my own opinions out of commenting - once, I admit, I made a student re-write his essay 8 times until he eventually ended up with "this is what I believe and there isn't anything more to it than that" which I accepted. And I was wrong to accept that.

Here is what I found most interesting about Wagner's article: he/she talks about ownership of an idea, and that if students are given a broad topic and able to narrow it down they are better able to pinpoint their own beliefs in issues (not simply blanket politics). Additionally, by making them argue against what they believe, it forces them to question their own identities: Why do they believe what they believe? Who has influenced them? Why do people believe something that I don't? Why isn't everyone who disagrees with me a raving lunatic like I was led to believe? and so on.

I'm still looking for an article that addresses issues of the dynamics between student and teacher, but maybe subtlety is the way to go? I'll see.