Responsible Pedagogy

Moving Beyond Authority and Mastery in Higher Education

Eric Detweiler

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English

Pennsylvania State University Press
21 May 2024

Communication studies; Higher & further education, tertiary education

In recent decades, public higher education has faced perpetual crises. As states slash investment in postsecondary education and for-profit entities seek to supplant public colleges and universities, these public institutions have tried to compete by maximizing efficiency, namely, by downplaying and outsourcing the labor of teachers.

Responsible Pedagogy makes a fresh case for the importance and value of public higher education and the work of teaching. In making this case, Eric Detweiler surveys the history of rhetoric and writing in postsecondary education, looking in particular at the teacher-student relationship. He finds that from the Socratic method to medieval exercises, from MOOCs to remote, asynchronous learning, the balance of authority and agency in the classroom is often precarious. But the problem goes deeper. Underlying both authority and agency is the value of mastery, which the teacher is to impart to the student. It is this emphasis on mastery, Detweiler argues, that distorts the proper relation between the student and teacher, a relationship in which they are responsible for and vulnerable to each other.

Drawing on contemporary ethics, rhetorical theory, and critiques of practices in the online classroom, Detweiler develops a pedagogy of responsibility and shows how it can be applied in writing and communication curricula, assignments, and teacher-student interactions. Rehabilitating the proper role of the teacher, Responsible Pedagogy calls into question our newfound trust in educational technology and points the way to a better, more effective pedagogy.

By: Eric Detweiler
Imprint: Pennsylvania State University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 362g
ISBN: 9780271093420
ISBN 10: 0271093420
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 21 May 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Eric Detweiler is Associate Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, where he also directs the Public Writing and Rhetoric program. He runs the podcast Rhetoricity.

Reviews for Responsible Pedagogy: Moving Beyond Authority and Mastery in Higher Education

“Responsible Pedagogy contributes to interdisciplinary conversations in rhetorical studies and the wider humanities through its methodological interventions as well as its advocacy for necessary changes in teaching practice in writing studies, communication studies, and other fields across the humanities and allied social sciences.” —Rosa A. Eberly,author of Citizen Critics: Literary Public Spheres