Abstract:
This dissertation examines and explores the negotiation of hegemonic power structures in
two Communication classrooms. This project, an exploratory case study, investigates the
classrooms of two professors of different marginalized identities. Both educators
employed critical and engaged pedagogy in their classrooms that enabled students to
engage, and allowed for deep and ethical listening that valued students and the stories
they shared. The author engaged in an activist researcher role that contributed to a
particular scaffolding of knowledge and learning, broadened the theoretical and
experiential canon from which to draw, and worked in partnership and ally-ship
contributing to each learning community, taking the necessary risks in order to interrupt
status quo narratives that emerge in the classroom and other socio-political structures in
U.S. culture.
