Pedagogical Possibilities for Argumentative Agency in Academic Debate.
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| Title: | Pedagogical Possibilities for Argumentative Agency in Academic Debate. |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Mitchell, Gordon |
| Peer Reviewed: | N |
| Page Count: | 29 |
| Publication Date: | 1998 |
| Document Type: | Opinion Papers Speeches/Meeting Papers |
| Descriptors: | Debate, Debate Format, Higher Education, Instructional Innovation, Social Action, Student Development, Student Empowerment |
| Abstract: | Argumentation skills are frequently touted as archetypal tools of democratic empowerment, yet theorization of ways to use such tools to achieve concrete social change is rare. As a result, the emancipatory "telos" anchoring American academic policy debate tends to gallop ahead of practical efforts to build empowerment through the debate medium. After considering ways in which the traditional simulation-based contest round format in academic debate may reinforce such a dynamic, this essay explores an alternative vision of debate pedagogy oriented toward cultivation of argumentative agency. It is suggested that this sort of agency can be developed best when teachers and students of debate engage wider spheres of deliberation and learn from practical experience as actors in the public realm. (Includes 25 notes; contains 44 references.) (Author/NKA) |
| Entry Date: | 1998 |
| Accession Number: | ED418455 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Argumentation skills are frequently touted as archetypal tools of democratic empowerment, yet theorization of ways to use such tools to achieve concrete social change is rare. As a result, the emancipatory "telos" anchoring American academic policy debate tends to gallop ahead of practical efforts to build empowerment through the debate medium. After considering ways in which the traditional simulation-based contest round format in academic debate may reinforce such a dynamic, this essay explores an alternative vision of debate pedagogy oriented toward cultivation of argumentative agency. It is suggested that this sort of agency can be developed best when teachers and students of debate engage wider spheres of deliberation and learn from practical experience as actors in the public realm. (Includes 25 notes; contains 44 references.) (Author/NKA) |
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