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Gordon
Mitchell, Communication, teaches graduate and undergraduate
courses in public argument and the rhetoric of science and has a
background in sociology, philosophy and history of science.
Recognized by his department for teaching excellence
(last year he won the Tina and David Bellet CAS Teaching
Excellence Award), he has developed several courses, including Rhetoric
of Social Movements, which started at the undergraduate
level and developed as graduate seminars.
Mitchell’s passions for teaching, research, and social
responsibility provide the “energy and leadership” that the
Chancellor referred to in the award.
‘Dialogic
Pedagogy’
Mitchell says his teaching is “greatly influenced by
the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who in a classic 1970 work,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, criticized the ‘banking
model of education’ as an ‘act of depositing in which
students are depositories and the teacher is the
depositor.’” Mitchell
discussed Freire’s philosophy in a recent article he wrote
titled “Simulated Public Argument as a Pedagogical Play on
Worlds,” published in Argumentation and Advocacy.
In the article he said, “Freire’s alternative to
the ‘banking’ concept of education is a ‘dialogic’
pedagogy, where mutually supportive and interactive
communication stimulates learning on the part of students and
teachers alike.” Thus,
education becomes a conversation between students and teacher.
That being the case, Mitchell notes the obvious link
between this pedagogy and courses in communication.
Mitchell holds a “passion for public
argument,” believing that it’s important to give students an
opportunity to address not only their peers, but public
audiences as well. He
finds an outlet for this passion as Director of Debate, in which
he oversees the William Pitt Debating Union, one of the most
venerable college debating unions in the country.
Recognizing the relationship between his position as
instructor and debate director, he applies his teaching
strategies in this additional role as well.
Public Audiences
Another
cornerstone of Mitchell’s teaching is pedagogical breadth,
which he explains as “teaching to diverse
audiences.” Through
debate outreach projects he works with students in second grade
through college. “I
learn so much about teaching older students by interacting with
younger students, and vice-versa.
Sometimes the best way to figure out how to understand a
difficult concept we may be struggling with in a graduate
seminar is to question elementary school students to see how
they work through the same concept.
That can sometimes provide the breath of fresh air needed
to see things in a new light.”
Mitchell continues, “Another dimension of that is going
beyond the narrowly constricted academic audience to reach out
to public audiences. That’s why we do public debates where we ask students to
develop speeches suitable for the general public, not just their
peers or professors. Engaging
public audiences can be a very powerful pedagogical tool.
The philosophy of the debate team here is public
service—students gain valuable experience as public advocates,
and the audiences who listen and watch debates are better
informed about what goes on in Pittsburgh and what students are
thinking about. For
example, last year students grilled county executive candidates
Jim Roddey and Cyril Wecht live on KQV radio.
The results were eye-opening for the candidates as well
as the audience as student questions shed a new perspective on
campaign issues. The
debate team has won numerous awards, including the first-place
Cross Examination Debate Association National Public Debate
Award, 2000, which recognizes the top public debate program in
the nation.
Expertise
In a new book, (Strategic Deception: Rhetoric, Science
and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy, Michigan State
University Press, 2000), Mitchell looks at how scientific
experiments conducted on missile defense systems are used by
advocates to politically sustain support for such systems.
Mitchells’s expertise in missile defense has made him a
sought-after speaker, both nationally and internationally.
He delivered a paper last year for the International
Security Information Service (ISIS) in Brussels, Belgium,
titled “U.S. National Missile Defense:
Technical Challenges, Political Pitfalls, and Disarmament
Opportunities.”
He has been contacted again by ISIS because European
leaders are curious about George W. Bush’s proposals for
missile defense. This
time, two graduate students (communication teaching fellows
Kevin Ayotte and David Cram Helwich) will work with Mitchell to
co-author an ISIS briefing paper on boost phase defense that
will be circulated throughout NATO high command this spring.
“For me,” explains Mitchell, “the whole missile
defense debate is a worldwide referendum on whether or not we
want to work out our differences using communication and
diplomacy, or whether we fall back on force and high-tech
intimidation as favored tools of world affairs in the new
millennium.”
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