Responding to Neoliberal Individualism: Developing an Ethic of Empathy Through Critical Communication Pedagogy

Abstract

The university’s mission involves educating students to become civic leaders, balancing both individual and collective goals. However, neoliberal influences have shifted the balance to focus on the individual over the collective. Communication curriculum has also shifted over time, with a sizeable percentage of its classes designed to prepare students for individual economic success, with the byproduct being a deemphasis on collective thinking. The communication discipline can resist this neoliberal encroachment by redefining three of its goals and applying commitments of critical communication pedagogy to aid in the process. Doing has the potential to work toward the development of an ethic of empathy, an ethic that can assist students in pursuing their goals while concomitantly (re)learning compassion for marginalized groups.