A Pedagogy of Charity: Donald Davidson and the Student-Negotiated Composition Classroom

Drawing on classroom experiences, the author suggests that philosopher Donald Davidson's interpretive principle of charity can help explain why communication is impoverished or even impossible in classrooms governed by traditional, authoritarian practices that form a “pedagogy of severity.” If the classroom is to be a place of dialogue, learning, and mutual transformation, teachers should promote a “pedagogy of charity,” which assumes that students are rational beings with mostly true and coherent beliefs.