Humane Composition Pedagogy

By: Tamara Luque Black and Amber Foster

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Synopsis: Humane Composition Pedagogy (HCP) provides a pedagogical framework for reconciling the current disconnect between neoliberal higher education policies (sometimes called the &“business model&” of higher education) and the demand for kinder and more human-centered instruction. Humane education is a pedagogical model, with origins in secondary education, that considers emotional wellbeing, civic engagement, and intrinsic motivation as central to learning. The authors suggest that humane pedagogies can and should be adapted to higher education contexts, as a means of synthesizing literatures on the pedagogies of inclusion and care from noteworthy scholars including Jamil Zaki, Lisa Blankenship, Asao B. Inoue, Ruchika Tulshyan, and more. Without feeding a crisis narrative or calling for a complete systemic overhaul, HCP offers both an alternative to, and an act of resistance against, dehumanizing forces in today&’s colleges and universities. In exploring its three tenets–empathy, wellbeing, and belonging–the authors call for improved collaboration among key stakeholders (faculty, students, and administrators) to center the human experience in how we approach college instruction, thereby allowing universities to better fulfill their educational missions.