Composition Forum 27 - What Does Your Money Get You? - Active Learning as an Alternative to Consumerism

Oct 15, 2026

The article examines how consumer rhetorics shape first-year college students’ understandings of university life, using consumer culture as the analytic frame. Student narratives about campus are shown to mobilize and deploy consumerist metaphors, enabling rhetorical self-positioning as both consumer and marketing strategist through Fredric Jameson’s “cognitive mapping.” The analysis then informs curricular methods that reframe education by assigning students an “active learner” role, empowering them to shape their experience.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Consumer rhetorics in student narratives

Cognitive mapping and student positioning

Curricular methods for active learning

Classroom implications and critique

CF 27: Active Learning as Alternative to Consumerism by Faith Kurtyka Page 1 of 14 Composition Forum 27, Spring 2013 [http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/](http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/) What Does Your Money Get You?: Active Learning as an Alternative to Consumerism in the Composition Classroom [[http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum](http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum)] Faith Kurtyka Abstract: This article offers a rigorous and researched look at how consumer rhetorics form firstyear college students’ understandings about life at the university. Examined in the context of consumer culture, students’ narratives about university life illustrate how they marshal, appropriate, and deploy consumerist metaphors and to what ends. Using Fredric Jameson’s concept of“cognitive mapping,” I argue that students rhetorically position themselves as consumer and as marketing strategist because these roles have significant standing in the contemporary capitalist culture, helping students adjust to a new place where they may feel powerless or disoriented. Following my analysis of these narratives, I suggest curricular methods that can be used in the classroom to question the meaning of an education. I advocate offering students the role of“active learner,” a role comparable to that of“consumer” but which also offers students a vantage point from which they can shape their university experience. Imagine going into a coffee shop on a crowded day. Customers have one goal, and that is to get their drink and go; however, at this very busy coffee shop, customers must buy several other expensive, low-quality, unwanted drinks. At [this university], students have to take general education requirements before they can start taking courses that apply to their major. Like the coffee shop scenario, this is completely unnecessary and quite ridiculous. Why should students have to pay for overcrowded classes that have nothing todo with their major? General education courses should be treated like samples at a coffee shop: if somebody doesn’t want to indulge in a sample, then they should not be forced to. —student essay, first-semester composition, fall 2009 I hope Composition Forum isn’t too hard to get into. The word count is only 8,000. Maybe I could just cut down this dissertation chapter and add in some more theoreticalsounding stuff. Do I have to read all of Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture? I hope there’s a summary of that book online. —my thinking, spring 2012 “I just like the fact that there’s competition. I like the fact that institutions of higher learning will compete with one another, whether they’re for-profit or not-for-profit.” —Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, January 2012 In January 2012, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered a ringing endorsement of Full Sail University, a for-profit college in Florida offering degrees in the entertainment field. Romney lauded the school’s ability to “hold down the cost of tuition” in an effort to compete with other colleges and universities. Romney was later taken to task in the media when it was revealed that Full Sail University costs far more than many colleges and universities (e.g., $81,000 for a 21-month [http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/active-learning.php](http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/active-learning.php) CF 27: Active Learning as Alternative to Consumerism by Faith Kurtyka Page 2 of 14 “video game art” program) and that Full Sail’s chief executive was a major donor to Romney’s campaign (Lichtblau) . Romney’s comments point, however, to the influence of market rhetorics and consumerist logics in the realm of higher education. These play out on a national level as politicians offer market-based solutions to student debt and increasing tuition costs, on an institutional level as colleges and universities create campus spaces to please student-consumers, and on

FAQs

How does the article describe the role of consumer rhetorics in first-year students’ understanding of university life?

It argues that consumer rhetorics shape students’ understandings of life at university, particularly through the metaphors they use to narrate their experiences and the ends those narratives serve.

What is the function of “cognitive mapping” in the author’s argument?

Using Fredric Jameson’s concept of “cognitive mapping,” the article explains how students rhetorically position themselves as consumers and marketing strategists in order to navigate contemporary capitalist culture.

What classroom curricular approach does the article recommend?

It recommends curricular methods that question the meaning of education and advocates giving students the role of “active learner,” a perspective comparable to “consumer” but enabling them to shape their university experience.

Oct 15, 2026

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