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Introspective argumentation can improve students' understanding of themselves, others, and argumentation practices.
Is it possible that [another culture's beliefs and practices] could be true and real for them and not for you? You will encounter this again and again when reading this book. It's not your culture, but can [their values] be real?
-MS. NELSON, ELEVENTH-GRADE TEACHER
On a February morning, Ms. Nelson (all names pseudonyms) was preparing her students to think about human rights in ways that many had not previously considered. Her eleventhgrade class was starting a new unit with the goal of crafting arguments about the people and issues present in the classic novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In many ways, the students worked toward this thinking shift all school year by studying critical theories and reading texts through the lenses of race, gender, and class. Though this approach fostered empathy and generated opinionated conversation, it also created gaps in students' initial arguments.
As we, teacher educators, were observing in the classroom, it was not uncommon to hear students' claims like those of Maria: "Their behavior is unacceptable and disturbing." Filled with issues of cultural values, identity, and racism related to the British colonization of a Nigerian village in the 1800s, Things Fall Apart provided opportunities (or traps) for students to apply their notions of human rights to their arguments about the characters presented in the text. But though convenient, to fully understand the text and to craft sophisticated arguments about it, students needed to consider the values that undergirded their own arguments, as well as the values of their audience.
We first met Ms. Nelson in 2014 because of our involvement in a teacherresearcher group of about twenty teachers, university faculty members, and doctoral students with a shared interest in argumentative writing. We met monthly to exchange ideas, ask questions, and seek advice about the practical implications for argument in the classroom, like the issues that Things Fall Apart brought forth for Ms. Nelson's students. We wondered how warranting can be taught, how students can learn about themselves through argument, if argument has to be divisive, and more. These discussions led Ms. Nelson to provide opportunities in the classroom for students to question the underlying assumptions of their...