Toward a rhetorical/dramatic theory of instructional communication

This essay asks how teachers can communicate in such a way as to compel students to think critically about not only the content but also the inherent social relations and underlying ideology of a course. The question is explored by viewing the classroom as a dramatic, hence rhetorical, environment. Bertolt Brecht's theory of performance is used to explain how students become numb to pedagogy and teachers, thus failing to think critically about the “plot” of knowledge and pedagogy and the roles that teachers and students play in the learning process. The essay draws on Brechtian theory to suggest three communication principles for inciting critical thinking: alienation effect, historicization, and gest.