Advocacy: noun public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy. “their advocacy of traditional family values” Advocacy is influencing through communication. In her chapter on Social Media and Advocacy in the Technical and Professional Communication Classroom., author Sarah Warren-Riley encourages TPC instructors to teach their students the importance of advocacy Read More…
We, the ADVOCATES
Social media is so many things. It’s interaction, communication, fun, games, creation, friendship, and SO. Much. More. Here’s one more (maybe controversial) thing to add to the list: social media is advocacy. Let’s back up–I just threw so many words into those sentences and maybe I need to provide a little bit more of an Read More…
Make Room For Discomfort
— That universal question: “Am I doing enough to challenge my students’ perspectives without making them too uncomfortable?” April Baker-Bell and Jessica Edwards remind us (in Linguistic Justice and “Inclusive Practices in the Technical Communication Classroom” from Citizenship and Advocacy in Technical Communication: Scholarly and Pedagogical Perspectives, respectively) that educators are still actively ironing-out the Read More…
How to begin to think about Anti-Racist Pedagogies
At this point in 2022, if you’ve been paying any kind of attention to the popular discourse around race in America, you’ll have heard the sentiment that ‘it is not enough to not be racist. We must also be anti-racist.’ While it may be a newish concept in the zeitgeist at large, anti-racism has been Read More…
Reshape your classroom for inclusion
Dr. April Baker-Bell’s Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy uses a methodical and brilliant rhetorical analysis to address the inequalities within the classroom. Dr. Baker-Bell’s chapters “Black language is good on any MLK Boulevard” & “What’s Anti-Blackness Got to Do Wit It?” center around the themes of “white mainstream English” deprives students of Read More…
Radical Femininity in the Classroom: Pushing Back Against Dominant Narratives
These days, being a radical feminist carries its own baggage, above and beyond the ancient canard of being “man haters.” Who wants to be associated with TERFs and their ilk, after all? – who, in the opinion of this radical feminist, at any rate, have utterly abandoned the principles of radical feminism and who have Read More…
Don’t Forget the Student’s Mother Tongue
All people from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds, and beliefs should have access to good education. Universities and colleges often claim to celebrate differences and invite everyone in. But what do instructors do when the very thing that universities claim to celebrate, is the very thing keeping students from fully engaging in the Read More…
Diverse Voices in Our Classrooms
With such diverse students, we should be considering the inclusion of diversity in our curriculum. In Jessica Edwards’ chapter on Inclusive Practices in the Technical Communication Classroom, she analyzes three of Nelson Laird’s nine-category approach to a diverse classroom: foundational perspectives, content, and pedagogy. For the purpose of this blog post, I would like to Read More…
Gatekeeping Diversity
Diversity is a pretty word. A band-aid word. A word meant to be helpful, hopeful in the face of words like ‘intolerance’ or ‘bigotry.’ It is also, unfortunately, a word that rings hollow to many educators entangled in an endless web of guidelines, permissions, and considerations. This is not to say, however, that inclusive pedagogy Read More…
One Classroom – So Many Types of English
In today’s world, English is considered a Global Language, meaning it’s the most widely spoken language in the world (cool, I know! ). But that leaves us, English instructors, with a little problem: what type of English exactly is the correct one? And how does that come to play in our classrooms? Yes, I Read More…