Kelly Myers's "Metanoic Movement: The Transformative Power of Regret"

In April, the pop-up reading group met to discuss Kelly Myers' article "Metanoic Movement: The Transformative Power of Regret." Here are some notes from their discussion.

At Julia’s invitation, we talked about how Myers' framing is a traditional rhetorical one, and assumes her audience accepts the relevance of this frame.  We discussed how her argument could be re-framed or re-explained for an audience not schooled in the rhetorical tradition. What language would we use think through the actions involved in metanoic movement with our students. Pausing? Regret? The “feeling of a missed opportunity”? Or (our favorite) inviting our students to revisit their writing with an “unsettled mind."

We talked about how it is easier for students to recognize and embrace the usefulness of moments of disorientation or setbacks in their research, and more difficult for them to see the usefulness of these some kinds of moments their revising process. A student will see, for example, how a source that challenged their argument ended up shaping their eventual argument in a productive and meaningful way. But they see things that they have to cut from their draft in revising as purely wasted effort.

We really liked the idea of metanoia as “asking students to reflect on their writing and thinking with a ‘restless’ mind, searching for openings and opportunities (seized or missed) that might spark new understanding or more questions.” (398)

We appreciated Myers suggestion that introducing the reflective part of an assignment from the very start might invite students to understand pausing, changing direction, and revisiting their writing with an “unsettled mind” as integral to the whole process, not just something to be done/written up at the end.

The article was reassuring in its reminders of our students’ lives before, after, and outside our class. We talked about how we sometimes forget that students are calling on a world of experiences prior to our class that they can potentially work through and revisit in their writing.  At the same time, the experience of the class lives on for them (after they are out of our sight and mind) as something that they may revisit, return to and learn from later.

Myers, Kelly. "Metanoic Movement: The Transformative Power of Regret." CCC 67.3 (Feb. 2016). 385-410.