Opening, Deepening, and Widening Dialogic Space in Argument Classrooms

• In Event: Opening and Sustaining Dialogic Space of Possibilities: Examining Talk in and Across International Classrooms

Abstract

Objectives
Despite the significance of argumentation in academic and public forums, the way argumentation is taught and learned in practice has not been effective in maximizing its potential. Argumentation has predominantly been viewed with a “formalist approach” (VanDerHeide et al., 2016, p. 288) where an argument is regarded as a structural entity or viewed as a “winning game” (Tannen, 1998) in which people hold to their views and disagree with others to win the argument. In this study, I suggest dialogic space as an alternative to these approaches by examining how dialogic space can be opened, deepened, and widened as well as how teachers can engage students in argumentation within this space.
Perspectives
Wegerif (2011, 2013) defined dialogic space as a space emerging “when two or more incommensurate perspectives are held together in the creative tension of a dialogue” (Wegerif & Yang, 2011, p. 312). Dialogic space is an epistemic space in which multiple voices are invited and explored to generate new meaning. It is also an ontological space wherein we relate to others by suspending our beliefs and instead listening to those of others. As such, dialogic space in an argument classroom is a space in which multiple voices are invited but create tension, through which students can deepen their understanding of the issues and a space in which they see the issues by suspending their own beliefs and listening to others’ voices.
Methods
The data for this presentation were collected from two eleventh-grade English classes. The first is an AP literature and composition class, while the second is a college prep English class. Both classrooms are located in an upper middle-class neighborhood of a Midwest metropolitan city. I adopt a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis (Bloome, Carter, Christian, Otto, Shuart-Faris, 2005) to examine the key events that took place in both classrooms.
Findings
The analysis demonstrated dialogic space was opened when the teacher named a dialogic gap between the idealized argument model and the realized argumentative writing and invited students to explore the tension. The space provided opportunities for students to expand their understanding of argument components. Dialogic space was deepened when differences in arguers’ beliefs and assumptions were identified and when arguers paused to reflect on their beliefs and assumptions. Dialogic space was widened as the space invited other voices and had them engage with their classmates’ ideas and see the issue from the third perspective.
Significance
The creation of dialogic space allows students “to learn how to step back, to de-focus and to listen to the almost inaudible voices of the multiple possible perspectives that underlie everything (Wegerif, 2013, p. 87).” Substantive and increased engagement in dialogic space in various contexts (in school, out of school, personal, civic, and digital) affords students the opportunity to gradually make it their own, enabling them to thrive in epistemic uncertainty and openness in reflection and exploration, as well as to orient and listen to their own and to others’ voices.

Author

• Min-Young Kim, University of Kansas