Political Literacy in Composition and Rhetoric: Defending Academic Discourse Against Postmodern Pluralism - Softcover

Lazere, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809334283 ISBN 13: 9780809334285

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Pr, 2015

Synopsis

During the 1970s, the National Council for Teachers of English issued a series of res­olutions calling for the teaching of “critical reading, listening, viewing, and thinking skills necessary to enable students to cope with the sophisticated persuasion tech­niques in political statements, advertising, entertainment, and news.” However, in recent decades, under the sway of multi­culturalism and postmodern theory, com­position and rhetoric pedagogies have strayed from these goals. In Political Lit­eracy in Composition and Rhetoric, author and teacher Donald Lazere issues a call to action for the return to an emphasis on critical thinking skills and multidisciplinary approaches in the teaching of composi­tion and rhetoric.

Lazere also presents a keen sociocultural observation regarding the majority of the “Middle Americans” demographic―lower-middle class, rural, white students with a conservative leaning and an occasional resistance to change― and their learning behaviors and needs. Finally, Lazere offers a roadmap for a new kind of curriculum, one that he argues will enable teachers of composition and rheto­ric to foster a sense of civic literacy in their students and thus, by extension, American society as a whole.

About this title

About the Author

Donald Lazere, a professor emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, USA, taught as a lecturer at University of Tennessee at Knoxville, USA after retirement. He is the author or editor of five books, including Why Higher Education SHOULD Have a Leftist Bias, which was published in 2013.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Pr
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809334283
• ISBN 13: 9780809334285
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344