Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

In Appreciation Of The Kind Of Rhetoric We Learn In School: An Institutional Perspective On The Rhetorical Situation And On Education, Kathleen F. Mcconnell

Kathleen F McConnell

Theoretical discussion of the rhetorical situation has been dedicated largely to questions of its ontology and of how it is constituted. Where this ontological orientation has inclined theorists to treat the concept as a theoretical premise, an institutional orientation would instead frame constructivist accounts of the rhetorical situation as a political-pedagogical commitment and treat the ethical obligations that arise from any given situation as bound to specific institutional forms. From an institutional perspective, the rhetorical situation is to conscience as the institution of school is to education. The distinction of both rhetorical situations and schools lies not in their contrivedness …