The Basic Course in Communication: A Critical Intercultural and Participatory Approach

This paper advocates for using critical intercultural and participatory pedagogy as the basis for an introductory communication course. Communication programs are often concerned with the basics -- teaching students to communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Yet the methods for teaching these two classic competencies diverge widely, with some instructors opting for a more traditional approach and others taking a more modern one. A divide also exists in the way today's students are viewed by educators in secondary and, in particular, post-secondary educational institutions. Where some teachers see lamentable shortcomings of millennials and Gen Z, others see infinite possibilities in these students. Either way, colleges and universities are dealing with a generation of students that is more diverse, connected, tech-savvy, and socially aware than ever before. This paper explores the advantages of using critical intercultural pedagogical practices -- practices which are necessarily cooperative, multimodal, and participatory -- to reach the students of today. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]