Editors' Introduction

Early in our career as editors, we made a decision to create primarily undedicated issues—that is, we hoped to provide as eclectic and diverse an offering in each issue as possible, particularly important in the early years when we were striving to get our generalist journal off the ground by appealing to teacher-scholars from a range of disciplines and institutional perspectives. In issue 4, no. 2, we described our rationale (2004: 167–68):

We are sometimes asked as editors why Pedagogy does not create dedicated theme issues. Our answer is simple: we believe strongly that in every issue of the journal there should be at least one point of entry for every member of the profession—an article or From the Classroom piece or review that tries to speak to the reader where she or he lives. We are also convinced that a commitment to a range of subjects can help bring the profession together around the center of our common lives: teaching. . . . Indeed, we are so committed to this ideal that we made a decision even before the first issue appeared that we would keep special issues to a minimum.

These principles still guide us, but we also believe that now that conversation has begun, there are times when it might be useful to linger occasionally around a central topic. This issue marks the first of these stopping places.

Why a special issue on Wayne Booth? First, he was a supporter of this journal. He was an inaugural member of the editorial board, on which he served (even though he had retired from the University of Chicago) until his death. In that capacity, he never failed to encourage us—two relatively young women who were unknown to him except through e-mail correspondence. He was a powerful influence on the early life of the journal, and we want to honor him for that.

We also want to honor him in his role as teacher, a role for which he was perhaps less famous than as scholar. We thought a dedicated issue of the journal, guest edited by James Phelan, a former student of Booth's, and filled with pieces by other former students, would be the perfect vehicle to celebrate his rich teaching career. In her entry, Meri-Jane Rochelson speaks of the generational influence of mentors. She describes how elements of teaching that she learned from Booth were passed along to her students, some of whom became teachers themselves:

When he starts his PhD studies in English this fall, [my son] Danny will begin the process of taking to another generation the importance of staying with the text, looking at the evidence, and knowing that no matter how much you know, there is always something that you don't. He will have learned this from his tenth-grade English teacher, who learned it from his mom, who learned it from Wayne Booth. Now, that's symmetry.

We see that symmetry in this special issue, infused by Booth's tremendous influence as a teacher and shaped so lovingly by his students.

We thank James Phelan for his fine handling of this issue as guest editor. We could not have been luckier in the choice of editor for our first special issue; Jim made it easy on us, and the result is simply stunning. We very much appreciate his hard work and dedication to this project.

Figure 1.

Wayne C. Booth, October 2003. Photograph by James Fromm.