Revisiting the Relational Communication Perspective: Drawing upon Relational Dialectics Theory to Map an Expanded Research Agenda for Communication and Instruction Scholarship

摘要

Extant research utilizing the Relational Communication Perspective has provided important insights concerning the student-teacher relationship. However, we believe that there is a wider epistemological terrain for communication and instruction scholarship to explore than has been to date. This essay draws upon Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT) to highlight how studying the sociocultural and contextual elements of relational communication can complement existing research programs. We first review past instructional communication literature concerning immediacy, affinity-seeking strategies, and teacher misbehaviors and show how each relies primarily upon deterministic, efficient-cause, and teleological logics (respectively). Second, we describe praxiological, formal-cause, and indeterminate logics and explain how incorporating each can promote new ways of teaching through and researching about relational communication. Third, we offer that a holistic account of students' and teachers' relational communication is a crucial step toward cultivating dialogic communication in educational spaces. Finally, we argue that the expanded epistemological scope of relational communication research should encourage scholars to engage in issued-based and methodologically pluralistic inquiries concerning the communicative phenomenon that are unique to educational spaces. Ultimately, we hope that this essay serves as an impetus for communication and instruction scholars of different paradigmatic loyalties to work together to forge rigorous, holistic, and politically hopeful research.