Term
Spring 2024
Capstone
Dissertation
Degree Name
EdD
Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair
Michelle Benegas
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly influenced teaching and learning in mediated spaces, highlighting the challenges many historically excluded learners face in virtual environments. While previous research suggests that well-designed online courses can effectively support these students, communication education as a field has been slow to adopt virtual learning. This resistance has left many educators underprepared to develop equitable and impactful online coursework. Previous work has demonstrated the success of critical communication pedagogy (CCP) - which centers the experiences of traditionally underserved students and promotes collaborative learning - within face-to-face communication coursework (Fassett & Warren, 2007). As such, this dissertation investigates how instructors integrate CCP commitments to design and facilitate inclusive online basic communication courses and considers students’ perceptions of how these elements influence their ability to learn from the experiences of their peers to co-create understanding. Employing a multiple case study design, this research conducted an inductive analysis of interviews with instructors and students, alongside an examination of course syllabi. The eleven findings emerging from this analysis were then compared against the ten commitments of CCP. Overall, findings revealed that both students and instructors found that building community, intentionally framing discussions, and meaningfully facilitating reflexion were key in inspiring students to engage in praxis beyond the course. This work provides four practical recommendations educators may use to intentionally design and facilitate equitable, transformative learning experiences. This dissertation closes with a call to action, asking educators to reimagine online communication courses as "brave spaces" (Arao & Clemens, 2013) that challenge students to engage in deep reflection and transformative dialogue. In doing so, educators empower students to act as agents of change in their day-to-day lives. This work not only contributes to the field of communication education but also provides valuable insights for designing inclusive online learning experiences in a post-pandemic world.
Keywords
Social Justice, Teachers/ Teaching, Communication Education, Virtual Learning
Recommended Citation
Baker, Margaret, "Communicating Across the Divide: Using Critical Communication Pedagogy as a Lens to Reimagine the Mediated Basic Communication Course as a Space of Activism" (2024). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. 4600.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/4600
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations