ABSTRACT

This chapter defines critical communication pedagogy and contextualize it with respect to communication education, instructional communication, and critical pedagogy. It explores what critical communication means for both classroom instruction and research on/in instructional settings. "Critical communication pedagogy" serves as an umbrella term to describe social justice–oriented approaches to instruction in communication and communication in instruction. Communication is the central focus of critical communication pedagogy, as a discipline and practice to share in classrooms at any age level, and as the means by which anyone, irrespective of discipline or subject matter, teaches and learns. Critical communication pedagogy emerges from a productive tension between critical pedagogy, developed by theorists and practitioners in the social foundations of education, and communication scholars who study communication education and instructional communication. Critical communication pedagogical literature on teacher identity includes Alexander and Warren, who used performative writing to examine the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and teacher identity in the context of U.S. universities.