Embracing a Critical Communication Pedagogy: A Radical Examination of the Common Communication Course.

The common, basic course is becoming more widespread among Communication departments across the country. By drawing on Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia, this paper suggests that the common classroom experience privileges certain individuals and ways of knowing by silencing the many voices that exist in a classroom situation. As such, this paper initiates a "radical" departure from the colonial branding of contemporary Communication curricula and the common classroom in a move toward a more democratic and critical engagement of course "instruction." Although a radicalized notion of a critical Communication pedagogy rejects formulaic prescriptions of teaching, the final part of the paper offers concrete examples for how a more democratic pedagogy, which recognizes diversity and difference, can exist for Communication departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]