Civics lessons: Rhetorics for citizenship in the public and academic spheres

Abstract

This dissertation uses rhetorical and historical lenses to explore three public educational change documents: A Nation at Risk, No Child Left Behind and A Test of Leadership. Through this analysis, the author argues: (1) Despite their historical relevance, classical ideals need to be reconsidered for our current educational situation; (2) Public documents provide valuable opportunities for exploring educational and civic issues since they are grounded in the social; and (3) Discussions of rhetorical education or rhetoric and education have a purely postsecondary focus; however, if rhetoricians are to further examine the relationship between rhetoric and education, they need to expand the scope of our inquiry and exploring current educational change documents offers one way to do so. This project offers a contemporary and socially situated perspective on the connection between rhetoric, civics and education. The author\u27s examination of current educational change documents and their public responses provides with an understanding of students\u27 social experiences of schooling. This understanding encourages teaching that moves away from static views of the civic toward more socially situated views of public life that stem from students\u27 prior schooling experiences