CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Teaching and Learning with Rhetorical Listening:
Alternatives to Self-Censorship and Silence in High School and College Classrooms
Co-edited by
Jessica Rivera-Mueller (Utah State University) and Krista Ratcliffe (ASU)
Project Description
Our collection addresses a timely problem: when difficult topics arise in high school and college classrooms, teachers sometimes choose to self-censor, and students sometimes choose to remain silent. Such decisions are made daily based on teachers’ and students’ values and classroom goals. Sometimes what remains unsaid should remain unsaid because it is harmful or simply irrelevant. But sometimes what remains unsaid could actually enhance classroom discussions. To encourage such teaching and learning moments, our collection invites chapters that discuss ways to integrate rhetorical listening into high school and college classrooms as a means of negotiating multiple perspectives on difficult topics. The purpose of our collection is twofold: (1) to encourage timely conversations about teaching and learning moments that both facilitate and benefit from engagement with multiple points of view and (2) to inform high school and college teachers about one another’s pedagogies. As such, our collection will extend pedagogical scholarship in rhetoric and composition studies, English education, and/or other related inter/disciplinary areas.
Proposed Content
We invite teachers as well as teams of educators, administrators, and/or students to write about ways of incorporating rhetorical listening into their teaching and/or learning. Rhetorical listening is a theory and set of pedagogical tactics that encourage teachers and students to hear–and negotiate–multiple perspectives on difficult topics (1999, 2006, 2022). For this collection, we are interested in what worked when using rhetorical listening as well as what did not and, just as importantly, what was (or could be) done differently. Teaching may be imagined either broadly or narrowly, i.e., from enacting one teaching practice in a classroom to designing an entire curriculum. Learning may be imagined as knowledge gained by teachers, administrators, and/or students’ engaging with one another–i.e., from how students may learn and employ rhetorical listening to how educators may learn by reflecting on their pedagogies and curricula.
To write a chapter about how rhetorical listening may inflect actions and responses of teachers, administrators, and/or students in high school and/or college classrooms, please consider teaching and/or learning in terms of the following topics, which may of course overlap:
• Curricular Design: Programs, teacher training, navigating state laws, etc.
• Course Design: Syllabi, unit plans, assignment/projects (in various media), etc.
• Activity Design: Ways of fostering learning such as brainstorming ideas, peer response, self-evaluation, conferencing with students, online communication, grading/assessment, etc.
• Classroom Community-Building: Ways of fostering relationships among students and teachers such as story-telling, periodic reflections about goals, etc.
• Classroom Management: Ways of handling responses to conflict such as establishing routines, giving feedback during class, helping students value their voices, etc.
• Other ideas?
Audiences
• College and high school teachers, teacher educators, students, and anyone generally interested in listening.
Timeline
• Chapter proposals due May 1, 2025
• Acceptances sent May 30, 2025
• Chapters due October 15, 2025
• Feedback provided to authors November 15, 2025
• Revisions due to editors February 15, 2026
• Manuscript submitted to press March 15, 2026
Submission Instructions
• By May 1, 2025, please submit your chapter proposal online athttps://forms.gle/F4dfs4L3sJWYXCoK8.
• At the online site, please include this information: (1) contact info; (2) title; (3) topic; (4) argument (500 words); (5) significance; and (6) projected page length (please, no longer than 15 pp. double-spaced plus a Works Cited).
Questions: Email Jessica Rivera-Mueller (jessica.riveramueller) or Krista Ratcliffe (krista.ratcliffe)