Teun A. van Dijk, Teach Yourself CDS !


Can CDS be learned?

Among those who are interested in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), especially students, the question often arises whether CDS can actually be learned in the first place. After all, if CDS is defined  as an academic movement, or a socially and politically commited attitude when doing social analysis by doing discourse analysis, rather than as a theory or a method of analysis, then learning CDS is an impossible task. In such a case, one would need to undergo a process of political (self-) reflection or 'consciousness raising' rather than the acquisition of terms or methods. In sum, in the strict sense, CDS cannot be learned, and hence cannot be taught either, no more than that one can learn (or teach) to be politically committed or feel emotionally involved when learning about social inequality and injustice. Hence what we present are only some resources for those students and researchers who already are interested in, and motivated to engage in socially committed research, for instance because of their critical attitude about social problems. This website already features many of such resources, such as bibliographies, websites, and papers with and about work in CDS. However, these are only an unorganized collection, and not a pedagogically structured set of suggestions for further study and research. It is such a "Teach Yourself" resource that is presented here, and consists of a series of basic principles, theory fragments, bibliographical suggestions, examples and - in a later stage - also various multimedia resources that may help and stimulate research in CDS.