A just rhetoric

This dissertation examines the pedagogical practices and written texts of The New York Association for Working Girls between 1890 and 1894 in order to identify elements that are useful in constructing a just rhetoric for teaching business communication today. The late 1890s were a period of economic pressure In the face of cultural, physical, and industrial expansion for the United States much like the late 1990s--early 2000s mark a time of economic pressure in the context of cultural, physical, and technological expansion for the university. The older New York women aimed to uplift the souls of the newly arrived immigrant working girls by defining and identifying for them appropriate ways of speaking, writing, dressing, and living. They were concerned with the exterior identity and conscious identifications among all females. However, an identification of the pedagogical unconscious, that is those sites of conflict, ambiguity, or contradiction in the works of the New York Association for Working Girls serves as a foundation for using the past to examine current definitions and identities in teaching business communications. Most research on business communications within a technological age identifies theoretical links between composition and computers, business communications and rhetoric, but few if any identify practical pedagogy within the context of links between electronic business, rhetoric, and composition within an integrated curriculum of a business college. In using the tools to uncover the unexamined differences within the New York Association for Working Girls, I define the pedagogical unconscious of a team-taught MBA course that integrates business communications. I use the elements I identify to construct a new pedagogy that I believe is just and inclusive to all when used to teach business communications in a technological age