Critical Communication Pedagogy: Toward “Hope in Action”

Author(s):  
Deanna L. Fassett ◽  
C. Kyle Rudick

Critical communication pedagogy (CCP) emerged from an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationships between communication and instruction that draws from and extends critical theory. This critical turn has influenced how the communication studies discipline defines and practices communication education (i.e., learning in communication or how best to teach communication) and instructional communication (i.e., communication in learning, or how communication functions to diminish or support learning across a broad array of contexts), from the one-on-one tutoring session to training and development, and beyond. This critical turn in communication and instruction is characterized by 10 commitments of critical communication pedagogy refigured here along three themes: (1) communication is constitutive, (2) social justice is a process, and (3) the classroom is a site of activism and interpersonal justice. Critical communication pedagogy is defined by three primary criticisms: (1) CCP focuses on postmodern and constitutive philosophies of communication to the detriment of critical theory, (2) CCP focuses too much on in-class communication to the detriment of activist learning, and (3) CCP is over-reliant on autoethnographic and performative methodologies. An expanded, reinvigorated, and radicalized critical communication pedagogy for communication studies scholars entails greater attention to and extension of critical theory; sustained engagement in and with activism (both within and beyond the classroom); and a more robust engagement of diverse methods of data collection and analysis. Critical communication pedagogy scholarship as militant hope is more relevant than ever in the post-Trump era, signaling a way for communication scholars to cultivate ethics of equity and justice at all levels of education.

Author(s):  
Joseph Winters

This chapter engages humanism and its fundamental assumptions by working through critical theory, black feminism, and black studies. It contends that there is a tension at the heart of humanism—while the ideal human appears to be the most widespread and available category, it has been constructed over and against certain qualities, beings, and threats. To elaborate on this tension, this chapter revisits the work of authors like Karl Marx and Michel Foucault. Marx acknowledges that the human is a site of conflict and antagonism even as his thought betrays a lingering commitment to progress and humanism. Foucault goes further than Marx by underscoring the fabricated quality of man and the ways in which racism functions to draw lines between those who must live and those who must die. In response to Marx and Foucault’s tendency to privilege Europe, this chapter engages black feminism and Afro-pessimism—Sylvia Wynter, Hortense Spillers, and Frank Wilderson—who show how the figure of the human within humanism is defined in opposition to blackness.


2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 2598-2603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Yi Sun ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Weixia Liu ◽  
Zhe Wan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWith voriconazole (VRC) being approved as the first choice in treating invasive aspergillosis (IA) and its increasing use in treatment, a VRC-resistant strain ofAspergillus flavus, the second leading cause of IA afterAspergillus fumigatus, has emerged. The VRC-resistant strain ofA. flavuswas isolated for the first time from the surgical lung specimen of an IA patient with no response to VRC therapy. In order to ascertain the mechanism of VRC resistance, the azole target enzyme genes in this strain ofA. flavuswere cloned and sequenced, and 4 mutations generating amino acid residue substitutions were found in thecyp51Cgene. To further determine the role of this mutated gene for VRC resistance inA. flavus, anAgrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene replacement approach was applied. Consequently, the mutatedcyp51Cgene from thisA. flavusstrain was proven to confer the VRC resistance. Finally, to discern the one out of the four mutations in thecyp51Cgene that is responsible for contributing to VRC resistance, a site-directed gene mutagenesis procedure combined with a gene replacement method was performed. As a result, the T788G missense mutation in thecyp51Cgene was identified as responsible for VRC resistance inA. flavus. These findings indicated that the detection of this mutation inA. flavuscould serve as an indicator for physicians to avoid the use of VRC during IA treatment. Further comprehensive surveillance for antifungal susceptibility, as well as intensive study on the mechanism of azole resistance inA. flavuscausing IA, would be required to fully understand this mechanism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 645
Author(s):  
Janet Batsleer

This essay offers a broken narrative concerning the early history of anti-oppressive practice as an approach in the U.K. to youth and community work and the struggles over this in the context of UK higher education between the 1960′s and the early 2000’s. Educating informal educators as youth and community workers in the UK has been a site of contestation. Aspects of a genealogy of that struggle are presented in ways which link publicly available histories with personal memories and narratives, through the use of a personal archive developed through collective memory work. These are chosen to illuminate the links between theory and practice: on the one hand, the conceptual field which has framed the education of youth and community workers, whose sources lie in the academic disciplines of education and sociology, and, on the other hand, the social movements which have formed the practice of informal educators. Six have been chosen: (1) The long 1968: challenging approaches to authority; (2) the group as a source of learning; (3) The personal and political: experiential learning from discontent; (4) Paolo Freire and Critical Praxis; (5) A critical break in social education and the reality of youth work spaces as defensive spaces; (6) New managerialism: ethics vs. paper trails. The approach taken, of linking memory work with present struggles, is argued to be a generative form for current critical and enlivening practice.


Author(s):  
Antonio Desiderio

As part of the societal world, architecture and urban space do not have any ‘objective’ quality. They are representations. Their meaning is produced through the negotiation and interaction of individuals, groups and classes. Yet, such ‘subjective’ meanings do have a ‘material’ relevance, as they reflect a dialectical process between the functions, forms, ownership and practices of space. They reveal construal and construction: the way in which architectural spaces are represented on the one hand, and the way in which they are physically constructed and used on the other. Nowhere does this become more evident in our current society than in the arguments around urban renewal and regeneration. The Westfield Stratford City is a typical example. Part of the vast process of the urban regeneration of East London prompted by London 2012 Olympic Games, Westfield is a massive complex of luxury shops, restaurants, bars and five star hotels. It is seen by investors and local and national political authorities as capable of transforming Stratford into a site for shopping, tourism and leisure. It does this in numerous ways, one of which involves reconfiguring the image of the region through the press and media - through visual imagery and linguistic manipulations that promote a neoliberal agenda of gentrification that simultaneously devalue the existent societal structures and communities in the area. This paper offers a Critical Discourse Analysis of the manipulation of Stratford’s image by government, business and the media and suggests that the purely financially motivated misrepresentation it reveals, is typical of the urban regeneration ethos at work across the developed world today.


This edited volume is the first to present a cohesive account of adaptation to chronic pain from a motivational perspective. Across the 15 chapters, scholars from diverse domains of psychology explore the multileveled and bidirectional nature of pain and motivation, drawing from a broad array of constructs, including self-regulation, goal systems, cognitive control, attention, conflict, interpersonal processes, coping, conditioning, and stress reactivity. Also addressed is the relation between pain and psychopathology, the nature of pain-affect dynamics, and the neural mechanisms underlying the pain experience. Applied considerations are presented in chapters on Motivational Interviewing, ACT, Internet-based methods, and related clinical topics. Our volume provides an up-to-date compendium of cutting-edge research and interventions that collectively illustrate the utility of viewing chronic pain as neither a “disease” nor an imposed lifestyle, but as the emergent and potentially flexible product of a complex transactional system that is bounded by sociocultural factors, on the one hand, and by biogenetic and neural moderating forces on the other. The chapters capture the vibrancy of current theory, research, and practice while pointing toward unexplored new directions. Students and seasoned pain researchers will find within the motivation-centered framework a host of intriguing ideas to complement extant formulations. And those engaged in treating/training persons with chronic pain will discover the unique, integrative value of motivational models.


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