College Composition and Communication Sep 2023

Stories and/as Civic Pedagogies: Toward Participatory Knowledge-Making in Cultural Rhetorics

Stephen Kwame Dadugblor

Abstract

This essay argues for attention in cultural rhetorics scholarship to stories as effective civic pedagogical tools informed by participatory knowledge-making practices. Drawing on a multiyear “mobile cinema democracy project” based on the physical circulation across Africa, Europe, and North America of a successful African democratic story told in the multi-award-winning documentaryAn African Election, I attend to both the documentary and its larger contextual project, “A Political Safari: An African Adventure in Democracy Building.” I demonstrate the ways that the African storytelling traditions of collaboration upon which this project rests offer us cultural rhetoricians key opportunities to reimagine inclusive knowledgemaking practices in using stories as civic pedagogies. My analysis reveals how such knowledge-making practices might orient our work against the grain of hierarchical, exclusionary, colonial practices and toward decolonial approaches that are truly participatory and inclusive.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2023-09-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc202332671
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
cultural rhetorics decolonial rhetorics writing pedagogy collaborative writing
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References (24) · 3 in this index

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    Transition
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    The Danger of a Single Story
    TED
  3. Merz (2010)
    An African Election
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    Listening to Stories: Practicing Cultural Rhetorics Pedagogy
    Constellations: A Cultural Rhetorics Publishing Space
  5. Chattoo (2020)
    Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change
     ↗
Show all 24 →
  1. Chilisa (2019)
    Indigenous Research Methodologies
  2. Cintron (2021)
    Democracy as Fetish
  3. Cobos et al. (2018)
    Interfacing Cultural Rhetorics: A History and a Call
    Rhetoric Review
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    Dewey for a New Age of Fascism: Teaching Democratic Habits
     ↗
  5. Cushman (2013)
    Wampum, Sequoyan, and Story: Decolonizing the Digital Archive
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  6. Dunaway (2012)
    Jareth Merz: Bringing An African Election Home
    Paste
  7. Gyimah-Boadi (2009)
    Another Step Forward for Ghana
    Journal of Democracy  ↗
  8. Hidalgo (2021)
    Constellating Stories and Counterstories: Cultural Rhetorics Scholarship Principles
    Constellations: A Cultural Rhetorics Publishing Space
  9. Jockers (2010)
    The Successful Ghana Election of 2008: A Convenient Myth?
    The Journal of Modern African Studies  ↗
  10. Labouba (2014)
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    African Studies Review  ↗
  11. Martinez (2020)
    Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory
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  13. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2018)
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     ↗
  14. Okpewho (2009)
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  15. Okpewho (2009)
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  17. Safari (2023)
    A Political Safari: An African Adventure in Democracy Building
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