Questions for Tuesday, 11/13

1)  In Cushman’s “Critical Literacy…”, she waits to identify her subject positioning until nearly halfway into the document (252).  Is this a significant issue, especially considering her ethnographic method?  Why might she have chosen to wait to identify her positioning?

2)  Cushman explains her triangulation as (1) observation, (2) getting feedback on her observation from outsiders to the project who are familiar with that kind of situation, and (3) getting feedback on her observation from those being observed (254).  What other methods could be used to triangulate just as effectively?

3)  In “Rhetorician…”, how well does Cushman position herself?  How does she convince us (or does she convince us) that we should listen to a graduate student (especially one who talks with the confidence and experience of a seasoned veteran in the field)?  What kind of evidence does she provide to persuade us of her authority?  Or is her positioning unimportant to her argument?