Social Practices in Higher Education - A Knowledge Framework Approach to Linguistic Research and Teaching - Tammy Slater

Social Practices in Higher Education - A Knowledge Framework Approach to Linguistic Research and Teaching - Tammy Slater

Voting as a Social Activity: Voter Suppression, the Common Good, and Evidence

Social Practices in Higher Education - A Knowledge Framework Approach to Linguistic Research and Teaching - Tammy Slater

Bernard A. Mohan [+-]
University of British Columbia
Bernard A. Mohan was Chair of Linguistics at the University of Milwaukee Wisconsin, then professor in Language Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada, working with immigrant learners in Vancouver’s schools. Now emeritus at UBC, he is a Research Fellow at King’s College, London who participated in an eight-nation study that recommended changes in teacher education across the European Union to benefit immigrant language learners. Known for his pioneering work on integrated language and content learning, he is a functional linguist who sees language as a resource for learning about the world in dynamic interaction with its cultural context.

Description

Students in higher education are typically eligible to vote. Voter suppression is an unethical removal of the right to vote and is often part of a wider attack on democratic rights and activities. Respected authorities have emphasized the importance of developing strong democratic norms for the survival of democracy. Can these norms be enhanced by an understanding of the traditional (e.g., Aristotle) and contemporary (e.g., Habermas) ethics of politics and a critical engagement with their application to political activities and discourses? In this chapter, taking a functional linguistics perspective, I focus on a Knowledge Framework approach to the linguistic analysis of political discourses and activities that students in higher education may find helpful to work with in order to respond to current political problems and to engage more intensively with their role as informed voters. This chapter takes a political linguistics approach, by contrast with other chapters in this volume that aim at an educational linguistics approach. Important ethical themes that will be examined include concern for the common good, and for “practical reasoning” (Aristotle) and respect for evidence-based reasoning, and for sincerity (Habermas).

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Citation

Mohan, Bernard A.. Voting as a Social Activity: Voter Suppression, the Common Good, and Evidence. Social Practices in Higher Education - A Knowledge Framework Approach to Linguistic Research and Teaching. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 157-185 Nov 2023. ISBN 9781781797402. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=35558. Date accessed: 13 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.35558. Nov 2023

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