Teaching First-Year Communication Courses by Pat J. Gehrke

Author:Pat J. Gehrke [Gehrke, Pat J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367139483
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

Readings

The title and course description provide some of the language codes and necessary background for the topics that will be covered in the course so that students are forewarned about what to expect. However, it is the readings that represent the substance of the course and impart a more concrete description of the material to be explored. The readings are usually organized progressively and build throughout the course from introductory material at the beginning to more advanced, complex, or precise material at the end. Participants reported including readings that covered a range of topics related to the various injustices inherent in the topic under study, which they culled from a variety of sources and disciplines, and placed in conversation with the experiential knowledge that students bring to the class, or with the experiences that students will have doing community service work as part of the class. In line with a critical pedagogy approach to instruction, the participants reported aligning course material to take advantage of the cultural knowledge that students bring with them.33

The communication educators in this study all began with readings that both introduced the topic and challenged dominant normative readings. For example, in classes that focused on gender, course readings began with articles that highlight the socially constructed nature of gender as an arbitrary binary with only two categories.34 In a class on prisons and social justice, course readings began with an overview of the prison–industrial complex and how it is damaging to democracy.35 An intercultural communication course began with readings about the cycle of socialization and how we come to understand ourselves as part of dominant and marginalized groups.36 What is readily apparent about the readings is the reference to the socially constructed nature of both our society and the material from these courses within that society (i.e., gender, race, criminality, etc.). These examples also take a fairly general topic and then expand it to move beyond simple or stereotypical readings. Beginning with readings that establish a perspective counter to the assumed norms of the dominant culture served at least two distinct functions: disrupting seemingly solid categories and the certainty with which they are accepted, used, and recirculated (challenging the taken for granted norms in a culture); and directing the focus toward future readings that will offer new and challenging interpretations of the topic (looking critically at knowledge).

The goal of studying the socially constructed nature of gender and communication with a social justice orientation is to develop a more complex, sophisticated understanding of what gender means in our culture, how it is constructed and reconstructed, how it circulates, who it harms, and how it could be different. Starting with an examination of the taken for granted norms about what gender is, how it is assigned, and what those assignments mean (both in positive and negative terms) is the entry point to moving beyond simplistic readings. The reading material assigned for these courses engages in this process and maps the direction that the class will move in developing an understanding of the topic.

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