Rhetorical scholars have long warned about declines in the quality of public and civic discourse. Recent cultural critics further observe declines in the civility and free expression of public opinion among US contemporary citizenry.
My own research on how publics often stigmatize radically differing realities, as well as my own personal experience of being a bi-racial “other” in the Midwest, inspires my teaching to meet these rhetorical exigencies.
Such exigencies beg for an ethics of encountering others in good faith, through the development of competencies of sensual attunement and listening to others, particularly those others espousing beliefs, attitudes, and values different than our own.
Rhetorical study, particularly cultivating cultural unlearning, radical self-reflection, and attunement to dialogical opportunities of encounter can build such an ethic.
My teaching is thus a classically liberal and humanistic approach to realizing this ethic by making use of embodied learning practices for the purposes of developing the whole person.
Based on my teaching approach something as mundane as topic selection becomes an occasion for deeper self-reflection and cultural awareness.
Assigning “weekend topic reflection retreats” students are challenged to unlearn old habits of topic selection, such as finding topics by mere fiat, Google search, or some cursory recognition that the “topic sounds good.” Through a weekend long reflection on their own communicative practices, particularly noting when speaking with emotion, the search for a speech topic becomes an occasion for discovering their own cultural embeddedness and voice.
As students assess the attitudes, values, and beliefs about which they already and naturally find themselves speaking on behalf, such embodied learning practices help forge connections between course content and student’s life values, whilst also serving the larger ethical goal of encouraging cultural/self-awareness.
Another example is my use readings on the rhetoric of listening to help students understand the ways personal convictions can sometimes thwart mindful listening, with the goal of increasing their awareness of their own listening biases.
I then make use of an online, asynchronous “weekend listening retreat.” Over the course of three days, students are to engage in three online modules articulating increasing empathic forms of listening: competitive listening, listening to, and listening through. Students practice these forms of listening for each day and journal their qualitative sense of the experience of connection they were able to generate with others. Such an approach achieves not only the goal of increasing their awareness and capacity for attuning to opportunities for dialogue, but also helps to forge connections between course content and everyday ethical choices.
In sum, my approach to teaching reflects a philosophical commitment to classically liberal and humanistic aims of teaching the whole person for the purposes of developing more ethically engaged citizenry. A number of student generated teaching awards and recognition attest to the effectiveness of this approach.
