This dissertation consists of four chapters and four interchapters, each of which addresses a different area of discourse practice in higher education. I study sites of discourse practices surrounding community colleges, sites influenced by today's social and economic climate. The first site I analyze is the advertising rhetoric of higher education. Focusing on how the use of the terms “success” and “guarantee” create cultural narratives for students, I question the ethics of advertising and suggest that rhetorical analysis can aid students in uncovering their agency in these overarching schema. The second site of discourse practice analyzed in this project is that of the national survey instruments employed by the Community College Student Survey of Engagement (CCSSE). By analyzing the language and assumptions used in the questions posed to students in this instrument, it becomes clear that CCSSE constructs questions about smaller communicative and managerial practices while largely ignoring opportunities to address the work of the democratic mission of open access colleges. The third area of analysis is that of venture philanthropy. In this site of discourse practice, I consider the work of the Gates Foundation's Completion by Design (CbD) Initiative. Relying on de-contextualized testing and assessment of students and teachers, CbD seeks to further the completion agenda through developing “pathways” for students that work as fast lanes to a credential with “labor market value.” How can writing teachers equip students to navigate this discourse and become savvy?
Throughout this project, I consider how key terms such as The American Dream, “success,” “guarantee,” “pathway,” and “gateway” have been legitimized in the rhetoric of national discourse and in these three areas of public discourse practice. I also trace their occurrence within the sphere of higher education to connect the two spheres. They are terms that have been legitimized through recurring discourse practices, as this project illustrates.
The four shorter interchapters contextualize each longer chapter through an analysis of the original speeches of President Barack Obama, who has made higher education a priority in his first term of the presidency, and has specifically focused on the community college. I offer a rhetorical analysis in each interchapter that focuses on specific speeches and attends to the contexts of rhetorical situations, accounting for what critical discourse analysts term the discourse practice and sociocultural practice dimensions of analysis. Again, through these interchapters, the legitimization of the terms mentioned above is illustrated.