My approach to teaching composition is radical in that my goal is to help students see that by being effective public writers they may be able to affect change in their community or in the world, and they can contribute as productive citizens in a democracy. To do this, I depend on Rogerian Democratic Pedagogy (RDP), a teaching model that I have developed, which is rooted in, and a modified version of, the pedagogical theories of American psychologist, Carl Rogers. The goal of RDP is to choose teaching methods and to create a learning environment that facilitates democratic learning and that encourages students to be responsible, active learners.

Rogers depended on dialogue, student-directed learning, and active learning as necessary elements for increasing the effectiveness of student learning and for facilitating learning that is meaningful to students. Central to RDP and to Rogerian pedagogical theory in general is the notion that is also commonly associated with liberatory pedagogical theorist and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire, that students are not empty receptacles to be filled with ideas the instructor deems important, but rather, they must learn and think for themselves. Rogers claimed that the most significant learning is that which involves students cognitively and emotionally, learning that they see as meaningful. I use a variety of teaching methods that I believe provide students with democratic, active learning opportunities, including webfolio (online portfolio) assessment, service learning, and distance learning. Some of my students have responded that these methods have helped them to learn for “more than just a grade,” and to learn “just to learn.”

Since 2002 my students have been designing and publishing their own webfolios. The feedback that I have received from students regarding this teaching method has been very positive. Some have asserted that they would continue using and adding to their websites after the end of the term. Some have put their web design skills on their resumes, and others have changed their career goals as a result of this experience. I believe that designing webfolios is empowering because it allows students to publish their own writing, the final step in the writing process. Since students know that their work will be published on the internet for a real audience, they are much more motivated to rethink and to revise their papers and writing projects. While the ability to write a traditional essay is also important, students in any composition course at the beginning of the twenty-first century should gain experience doing some type of web-based writing, such as contributing to a blog or developing a webfolio, because this is writing that is arguably more appropriate for participating in a democracy and for contemporary rhetorical situations; it provides students with a forum and a means to share their perspectives with a much larger audience than their teacher and their class.

Another important teaching method that I depend upon to provide students with active learning opportunities is service-learning, and this type of public writing project helps students see that they can make a difference in their community through writing. My students complete writing projects as their service for non-profit agencies. Some of their projects include creating brochures and fliers, composing articles for newsletters, creating PowerPoint presentations, and designing web pages. Many students have claimed that their service-learning projects have been very meaningful to them. Some have developed such a strong sense of ownership of their work and a positive relationship with their non-profit service partner that they have decided to continue their service work even after their class ended.

I believe distance education also provides students with democratic learning opportunities because in an online classroom, students must be responsible  for their own learning, taking the initiative to keep up with the syllabus, to complete assignments, and to contribute their voices to discussion boards without getting as many reminders from the instructor as their fellow students in face to face classes. Distance learning classes also democratize learning because they make education accessible to many students who otherwise would have difficulty taking university-level classes, students who hold full-time positions, parents who care for small children, and students with disabilities.

 I am a teacher because I hope to make a difference in my students’ lives. I think that composition and rhetoric classrooms, face to face and online, provide a unique forum to do this. By providing students with active learning opportunities such as distance learning, webfolio assessment, and service-learning, my hope is that I can help my students to grow as individuals, to become responsible learners, and to become more active citizens as well, who are inspired to contribute their voices and to make an impact in their communities.