Universal Instructional Design and Critical (Communication) Pedagogy: Strategies for Voice, Inclusion, and Social Justice/Change

Abstract

This essay is written in direct response to Barajas' and Higbee's (2003) Barajas, H. L. and Higbee, J. L. 2003. “Where do we go from here? Universal design as a model for multicultural education”. In Curriculum transformation and disability: Implementing Universal Instructional Design in higher education, Edited by: Higbee, J. L. pp. 285–289. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, General College, University of Minnesota. In [Google Scholar] call to treat Univer sal Instructional Design (UID) as part of a multicultural educational project. I contend that inclusivity and the use of UID should be combined with the political project of Critical Pedagogy (CP). In so doing, inclusivity will not reproduce the relations of inequality it seeks to redress, but can provide a set of principles that will assist educators in working for social justice. In this essay, I explain how critical pedagogy provides an important framework for engaging UID and provide examples of how UID and critical pedagogy can be combined in the Communication Studies classroom.