Speech communication instructors must think through the consequences of adopting a pedagogy of empowerment before they leap into the classroom with a handy packet of reading and pre-packaged activities. Schools are contested spheres and the struggle over what forms of authority and types of knowledge should be legitimated and transmitted to students can be seen in the demands of right-wing religious groups, feminists, ecologists, minorities, and other interest groups. Teaching with empowering students as a goal can be particularly challenging for speech communication instructors because so much of what happens in their classrooms is public. Instructors should keep student developmental levels in mind prior to trying out new critical classroom approaches. According to the theories of William Perry, students walk into class at many different places on the hierarchy of development, and instructors cannot reasonably expect all of their students to end up at the same place by the end of the semester. Incorporating sensitivity to multiculturalism into a public speaking class can be an extremely challenging endeavor. By exploring tenets of critical pedagogy and looking for opportunities to incorporate them into public speaking classrooms, instructors will be doing a service to their students. By using developmental theory as an "overlay" for critical activities, instructors can better understand their students' successes and failures. (Contains nine references.) (RS)