A college composition instructor who approached her course from a feminist perspective found it difficult to overcome students' arguments and frustration until she obtained the help of an ethnographer. The ethnographer got involved with the instructor's evening classes on a regional campus for an entire semester. It was discovered that male and female students in the class were operating along very different intellectual and moral schemes and were reacting differently to the instructor's authority. Male students were less willing to accept the female instructor's sources of knowledge and to share their own writing with the rest of the class. The women in the class, many of whom were mothers, appeared to feel responsibility to their classmates, especially if it meant they could be instructive. In retrospect, it would have been helpful to understand differences in male and female cognitive and moral development and to learn where each student seemed to be in his or her development. The goal would be to engage all students in a dialogue that recognizes both genders' ways of knowing, so that the teacher could teach instead of struggling against students' hardened resistance to change. (SG)