By James Moffett
Curated by Jonathan M. Marine and Paul Rogers
Comprised of twelve chapters drawn from speeches and published work from 1970 to 1980, Coming on Center: English Education in Evolution attempts to bridge the gap between theory and practice, past and future, student and society, and in doing so to help educators think more effectively about the teaching of language which Moffett believed played a vital role in our sense of self, culture, and society. Moving between practical teacher talk and analysis of learning principles and theory, and interlaced with moving anecdotes and examples from his own life, Moffett draws the increasingly political and societal focus of his ideas about language learning into a single volume which seeks to enlarge conceptions of language learning and curriculum development to account for the mindful and meditative, and the spiritual and societal.
James Porter Moffett (1929–1996) was a ground-breaking teacher, author, and theorist of language learning who had a profound impact on the fields of English Education, Language Arts, Composition, and Educational Psychology in the mid-to-late 20th century (Warnock). Moffett also had a lasting impact on the National Writing Project (NWP), was influential at the 1966 Dartmouth conference, and figured closely into the history of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE); speaking at a number of NCTE conferences and events, publishing more than thirty articles across the many NCTE journals, and helping to found the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (Blau). In addition to his core pedagogical contributions, and in particular his paired 1968 publications, Teaching the Universe of Discourse and Student-Centered Language Arts, Moffett’s prescience and foresight in advancing holistic assessment, progressive education, the centrality of peer-to-peer interactions, social emotional learning, and multicultural and multilingual curriculum led him to be referred to by many as “the North Star” of language arts education (Durst; Spalding et al.).
Publication Information:
Moffett, James. (2022). Coming on Center: English Education in Evolution. The WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/landmarks/moffett/coming/ (Originally published by Boynton/Cook in 1981)
Publication Date:
November 11, 2022
Landmark Publications in Writing Studies
Series Editor: Mike Palmquist, Colorado State University
This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF).
