Performing the Writer: Using Organization Theory to Manage the Creative Writing Classroom

Although the Creative Writing (CW) classroom seems like an unlikely place for organization theory to apply, there are actually many applications of business-oriented managing techniques. Karl Weick’s (1979, as quoted in Hatch, 2006) enactment theory, the idea that individuals “construct, rearrange, single out, and demolish many ‘objective’ features of their surroundings” (p. 45), plays a large role in the CW classroom. CW instructors must learn to act as managers and to establish authority, identity and classroom boundaries in the same way that an organization must.

Enactment Theory: A Definition

A key concept in Weick’s (1979, as quoted in Hatch, 2006) theory is that “[w]hen people enact laws, they take undefined space, time, and action and draw lines, establish categories, and coin labels that create new features of the environment that did not exist before” (p. 45). In many ways, the classroom functions much like an organization—there are rules, defined roles, a hierarchy of authority, and boundaries. There are five basic values that a classroom can adopt (and that can cross over to organizations) in order to function more effectively and to make use of enactment theory.

Value 1: Construct New Knowledge

Leahy (2005) offered an analysis classroom management, writing that “the classroom is structured around the concept that the learning process, particularly for creative writers, involves moving beyond what one already knows and can do. To be uncomfortable . . . is not a bad thing” (p. 15). In an organization, employees enter with current knowledge of their profession and of techniques for doing their work. However, many staff members are trained or retrained on how to perform their duties, and often, especially in the library context, employees must be interdisciplinary, which can be uncomfortable for some.

Knowledge is the first “objective feature” of the classroom. The instructor must help students move past their current knowledge into something new, or they will remain static in their learning. The CW instructor first has to single out (one of the facets of enactment theory) current knowledge and distinguish it from what the students are to learn. Once current knowledge has been separated, then new knowledge can be constructed. The first classroom value that should be established is that the CW student will construct new knowledge regardless of prior knowledge.

Value 2: Develop Shared Commitment

A key to enactment theory and to the construction of new knowledge is the creation—and possibly demolishing—of boundaries and values. Like any organization, the CW classroom needs an established system of responsibility and authority, and it is the instructor’s task to carry out and maintain this system. Webb (2005, as quoted in Leahy, 2005) writes, “The authority-conscious creative writing pedagogy expects that the creative writing classroom invites shared commitment. This expectation is not an abdication of professorial responsibility. Instead, it marks a paradigm shift in the creative writing classroom to focus on process rather than product” (p. 180).

A thriving organization has employees who embrace each other’s area of expertise and who demonstrate respect for one another, rather than compete with and subvert one another’s efforts. Likewise, the CW classroom should be a place where competition and subversion are discouraged in favor of professionalism. Vandermeulen (2005, as quoted in Leahy, 2005) writes, “I also limit my authority by discouraging individual competition and instead authorizing and training students to collaborate in the process of enabling other students to develop as writers” (p. 50).

In the hierarchy of the classroom, the instructor normally stands at the top, and an informal ladder of authority is established among students. Take, for instance, the classifications teachers put upon their students—“she’s my best student,” “they’re the smart kids,” or “he’s a D student.” Rather than focusing on grade distinctions, instructors should focus upon the process their students are taking to reach their conclusions. Shared commitment becomes a part of this focus, with students learning to examine each other’s processes. A second classroom value that needs to be enacted is that these authors will develop their abilities, their authority, through shared commitment. When trust is developed and authority is dispersed, students can better develop their identities as authors.

Value 3: Disperse Authority through Roles

Another aspect of boundaries is the issue of authority, be it in an organization or in the CW classroom. Employees in most organizations are given titles (roles) that demonstrate their expertise in a particular area, be it as an Assistant Professor, a Librarian, or a Sales Associate. These titles help employees embrace their positions in the organization.

In the CW classroom, the instructor has all the expertise and right to stand at the top of the authority hierarchy, but should she? Is there a difference between the responsiveness of students (or employees, if that makes the analogy clearer) who are treated as though they know nothing and students who are treated as professionals who are developing their skills even further? Vandermeulen (2005, as quoted in Leahy, 2005) writes, “Much of the recent history of composition theory can be understood as a deliberate limiting of the teacher’s authority in order to create a safe space in which students can develop their own authority as authors” (p. 49-50). In general, students respond better when the title of student is eliminated and the role of author is given. The instructor’s role as manager of the CW classroom requires that she encourage her students to embrace their roles as authors.

Authority has to be dispersed among all the participants in the classroom. A third classroom value that should be enacted is that students will be treated as burgeoning professionals who are there to develop their skills, as opposed to empty stores waiting for new knowledge to be dropped into them. In every classroom setting, students should be assigned roles to play, such as author, writer, or researcher.

Value 4: Examine Biases and Assumptions

In keeping with the postmodern view of organization theory, biases and assumptions must be approached. Every staff member in an organization has beliefs and ideas that will differ from another staff member’s. It cannot be avoided, but often employees are put through training sessions on tolerating the views of those with whom they may disagree. There is some crossover here in the CW classroom. The CW instructor should be teaching students to critically examine their own and other classmates’ writing, looking for any assumptions or biases, some of which the student may not even have noticed.

A fourth classroom value should be that the instructor will regularly drive students to examine and identify their own assumptions and biases. Adding to the feminist and gender criticism of the CW classroom, Hall (2005, as quoted in Leahy, 2005) writes that “creative writing’s place in the academy is still suspect, as is the woman writer-professor. My pregnant body overtly marked me woman, though of course I had been a woman for my entire teaching career. That day, I had become a certain kind of woman, and this kind was meant to be at home” (p. 90).
Students will regularly demonstrate their assumptions with no thought that those ideas could be dubious. Dispersion of authority and development of trust and shared commitment require that these assumptions be left behind in the CW classroom. A student who believes that a woman cannot be an effective writer will not be an effective critic of female classmates’ work. The CW instructor has to develop ways to force authors to reevaluate their ways of thinking about the world.

Value 5: Expand Influence to a Larger Community

The final aspect of enactment theory, and really the driving force behind it, is physical boundaries. An organization has the option to enact its own boundaries—it can be limited to one building, one community, one state, or it could even be international. An organization can choose to enact boundaries in its chosen forms of communication, whether it works in person, on paper, or even online. Whatever its physical boundaries, the bottom line is that an organization is in contact with and affects the communities with which it comes into contact. Organizations many times will commit to certain community efforts or work toward community enrichment in order to better thrive.

Community is a rather large part of creative writing, and the CW classroom should be expanded to include much more than the students. Manolis (2005, as quoted in Leahy, 2005) writes:
My students were willing to buy, with some discussion and practice, the idea that peer critique was important, but when I suggested that community is not the same as peer readers, they balked. When I suggested that sometimes community means a group of people more diverse than one’s peers, and at other times, it means a specific group of people, or more than one group whose priorities conflict, they became confused. (p. 141-142)
Indeed, the idea that the classroom extends beyond those immediately involved can be a confusing concept. However, the CW instructor has to teach her students that their work can influence the way those reading it think. They should ask the question, how is my work going to affect the person who reads it?

So the fifth value that should be established is that classroom borders will be demolished and new boundaries enacted that include more than just the community of students; namely, the boundaries should include the community of readers. By establishing these five values, the CW classroom can not only be run like an organization, but it can have a significant effect on participants and the community at large.

References

Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2006). Organization theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.

Leahy, A. (Ed.). (2005). Power and identity in the creative writing classroom: The authority project. New York: Multilingual Matters Ltd.