Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Sep 2008 Open Access

The Promise of Public Dialogue in Service-Learning Courses

Shereen G. Bingham ; Patrick T. McNamara

Abstract

This article explores the collaborative experience of a university professor and the coordinator of a local hate crimes project as we developed and taught a service-learning course on public dialogue. We begin by describing dialogic communication and suggest that it can be integrated into other forms of public discourse, such as deliberation and advocacy, in order to enrich them. We then describe our course and analyze data we gathered during the semester to assess how the course affected our students. Our analysis suggests that although we missed some opportunities to optimize our students' learning, the course successfully prepared them to plan and facilitate public dialogues on diversity issues, and motivated most of them to become more engaged with their community as democratic citizens and promoters of social justice. We end with lessons learned and ideas for future research and practice.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2008-09-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv8i1pp56-84
CompPile
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
discourse analysis service learning collaborative writing race and writing public rhetoric
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