Teaching in a Sanitized World: An Exploration of the Suburban Scene in Public Communication Pedagogy

Abstract

This essay explores the suburban mythos that dominates the pedagogical scene of publiccommunication instruction. This scene both narrows the civic meaning of citizenship and constructs an unproblematic environment of professional acceptance. In doing so, it removes any serious discussion of the world of conflicted interests. As a remedy, this essay offers different ''representative anecdotes'' for public-communication instruction and argues that these alternative scenes create a closer relationship between scholarly theory and the discipline's basic-course instruction.

Postcoloniality and the Speaking Body: Revisioning the English Oral Competency Curriculum

“…The contemporary response of the speech discipline (now known as commu nication) to this skills emphasis seems encapsulated by the National Communication Association's compilation of "Spea king and Listening Competencies for College Students," published in 1998 that predominantly focuses on the acquisition of employable skills. Indeed, a skills orien tation remains dominant in public speaking courses where most textbooks treat public speaking as a pragmatic skill that is vital for personal, social, and professional success (e.g., Clasen & Lee, 2006;Fleury, 2005;Murphy, 2004). There is no serious attention, as Bostdorff observes, of how public communication promotes democratic deliberation and citizenship.…”

“…Such persons could find no "value in recognizing that the language of our ancestors was indeed a language." Public speaking courses are equally ideologically laden, privileging certain interests and deprivileging others than other courses do (e.g., see Clasen & Lee, 2006). However, in pretending to be ideologically neutral by defining com munication competency in terms of skills and techniques, these courses sustain a system of beliefs, fears, values, norms, assumptions, and truths that, in turn, sustain a certain ratio nal and moral order.…”

“…In recent years, initiatives to revision public speaking and other communication courses in ways that promote public deliberation and global citizenship are steadily emerging (e.g., Bostdorff, 2009;Clasen & Lee, 2006;Fleury, 2005;Murphy, 2004). Without doubt, more and more public speaking courses and texts are increasingly attending to issues of diversity and deliberation.…”