Argumentation integrity in intercultural education: a teaching project about a religious-ideological dialogue as challenge for school

Abstract

In this article, we describe the multiple phases of a teaching project that was constructed around an actual request by a Muslim community in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to establish an Islamic cultural centre. The request provoked a sometimes heated discussion among politicians and citizens that was published in daily newspapers. A large number of the arguments that appeared in the newspapers failed to meet fair argumentation standards and strategies. The teaching project described here therefore aimed to sensitize future teachers to issues of argumentation integrity in dialogues, especially between persons with different religious and ideological convictions. The project was subdivided into three main phases, which treated the topic from different perspectives and with different methods: a simulation game dealing with the request by the Muslim community, a theory-based phase in which participants became acquainted with a construct of argumentation integrity and from this deduced standards and strategies relating to unfair argumentation, and an application phase in which the participants had to examine published arguments by politicians relating to the request by the Muslim community in order to identify rule violations in argumentations. The empirical results suggest that the project promoted insight into unfair argumentation. Such insight can improve interreligious and intercultural communication processes at school.

Keywords:

• debate
• simulations
• Islamophobia
• argumentaion theory
• Germany

View correction statement:

Corrigendum

Notes

1. The original, as well as further material concerning the implementation of the project can be provided upon request from the author.

2. School shall enable pupils, according to the decree of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany, to autonomous and critical judgement as well as to self-reliant acting, educate to freedom and democracy as well as to tolerance, respect for the dignity of the other human being and for other convictions, make them understand ethical norms and cultural and religious values, arouse peaceful attitude in the mind of understanding among nations as well as the willingness to social acting and political responsibility and qualify them for the perception of rights and duties in the society.

3. The first sentence was modified: ‘The project made me feel …’.

4. Most of the stated rule violations are generally well-known norms. The number of rule violations associated with the value perspective of cooperativeness increases further if we add criteria such as remain calm and do not shout.

5. Only those persons were included n the analysis of the pre-post-inquiry who were present on both dates.

6. The different numbers of participants can be explained as follows: at one university, compact seminars were not allowed so that the implementations needed to take place over a five-week-period. Excursions, exam papers, orals, office hours and illness were reasons given for absenteeism.