Robbin D. Crabtree

Mutual empowerment in cross‐cultural participatory development and service learning: Lessons in communication and social justice from projects in El Salvador and Nicaragua

Abstract Two cross‐cultural participatory development and service‐learning projects conducted in El Salvador and Nicaragua illustrate a model of mutual empowerment formed from the unification of the three related literatures on developmental communication, intercultural communication and cross‐cultural adaptation, and service learning. The essay presents an argument for and illustration of communication and social justice research and action that is grounded in long‐term, international participatory projects that empower community members, broaden sojourners’ minds and personal growth, and result in increased communication skills and “education in citizenship” that empowers participants in both the learning context and the broader socio‐political context. The essay includes an in‐depth description of the projects, an overview of the continuing assessment research, and a consideration of ongoing concerns about project design, communication research, and ethics.

Your Culture, My Classroom, Whose Pedagogy? Negotiating Effective Teaching and Learning in Brazil:

This article explores the cross-cultural teaching and learning environment of a graduate course in a master’s degree programin teaching English to speakers of other languages (MA-TESOL) offered by a U.S. university in Brazil. The authors analyze the experience of a U.S. professor teaching diverse adult students in Brazil to illustrate and further illuminate what is known about teacher immediacy, communication accommodation, and cross-cultural adjustment. They also raise ethical and pedagogical concerns related to international education endeavors. In this case study of teacher praxis, critical and feminist pedagogical theories are used in conjunction with intercultural communication theory in the development of a culturally flexible pedagogy appropriate to cross-cultural learning environments like this one. Although the context is Brazil and the professor and researcher are from the United States, the broad conceptual strokes of the analysis may be applicable to other intercultural teaching and learning contexts.

A Laboratory in Citizenship: Service Learning in the Technical Communication Classroom

This article presents an argument for and offers illustrations of service learning in technical communication courses and curricula. Alongside traditional internships that prepare students as future employees, service learning provides students with an education in engaged citizenship. This article reviews service-learning literature, discussing specifically the advantages of projects to students, faculty, and the community. The authors also describe three projects in which instructors and students integrated service learning and technical communication in innovative ways.

Theoretical, Political, and Pedagogical Challenges in the Feminist Classroom: Our Struggles to “Walk the Walk”

Abstract The authors explore both theoretical issues in feminist pedagogy and the politics of the contemporary university classroom. They examine various intersections of gender, power, pedagogical theory, and academic discipline in order to bring greater attention to the struggle many teachers face in “walking the walk” as feminist teachers.

Telling, Re-Telling and Talking about Telling: Disclosure and/as Surviving Incest

This essay has two intertwined goals. First, grounded in feminist standpoint theory, we advance the layered account (Ronai, 1995) as a method for representing experience that captures the current epistemological tension between commonality and difference in feminist scholarship. Then we present a layered account of the incest disclosure experience where we examine the disclosure forms of telling, re-telling, and talking about telling. This account challenges the boundaries between author and subject, private and public, personal and professional.

Crossing borders in health communication research: toward an ecological understanding of context, complexity, and consequences in community-based health education in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

In the past 15 years, researchers in health information dissemination have made significant strides in addressing context, complexity, and consequences (Sharfs “3 Cs”) in theory, research, and praxis. The goal of integrating the 3 Cs in this field, however, remains a challenge. In this article, the authors present 6 principles of a postmodern ecological approach to health information dissemination that attempts such integration. The authors outline proposed principles and use a multiyear, interdisciplinary, and interinstitutional collaboration along the U.S.–Mexico border to illustrate this postmodern ecological approach. The goal of this article is to provide a framework for understanding other projects and communities in which efforts are undertaken to cross physical, social, cultural, economic, and political borders.