An Alternate Pragmatism for Going Public interrogates composition’s most prominent responses to contemporary K–16 education reform. By “going public,” teachers, scholars, and administrators rightfully reassert their expertise against corporate-political standards and assessments like the Common Core, Complete College America, and the Collegiate Learning Assessment. However, author Jim Webber shows that composition’s professional imperative for self-defense only partly fulfils the broader aims of “going public,” which include fostering public participation that can assess and potentially affirm the public good of professional judgment.

Drawing on the pragmatic/democratic tradition, Webber envisions an alternate rhetoric of professionalism, one that not only reasserts compositionists’ expertise but also expands opportunities for publics to authorize this expertise. While this public inquiry and engagement may not safeguard professional standing against neoliberal reform, it reorients composition toward an equally important goal, enabling publics to gauge the adequacy of the educational standardization so often advocated by contemporary reform.

An Alternate Pragmatism for Going Public shows how public engagement can serve composition’s efforts related to “going public.”

Justin Everett is Director of Writing Programs at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, where he was instrumental in the formation of the university's independent writing program. With Robert Lamm, he is author of Dynamic Argument(Houghton Mifflin 2007 and Cengage 2012) and, with Jeffrey Shanks The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015). His research interests include writing program administration and popular culture.

Cristina Hanganu-Bresch is Assistant Professor in Writing and Rhetoric and Assistant Director of Writing Programs at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, where she helped establish a Writing Minor and Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives. She has a strong pedagogical interest in scientific writing and medical rhetoric and has published articles and chapters on psychopharmaceutical advertising, asylum genres, and patient memoirs. Her work (with Carol Berkenkotter) has appeared in Written Communication and Literature and Medicine.