Arguing for democracy. Promoting argumentation literacy in civic education in Switzerland

Abstract

Deliberative democracy theories emphasise the importance of communicative engagement in civic opinion formation. Therefore, civic education should enable students with the skills to participate in deliberative processes, fostering argumentation literacy understood as both a linguistic and a political competence. This study examines how a teaching unit designed to promote transactive dialogue among 8th and 9th-grade (ISCED 2) students influences the quality of classroom debates. The unit combined a modified version of Gronostay’s argumentation training, teacher-designed thematic input, and a structured fishbowl debate format. Conducted during the 2022–2023 school year, the study involved four experienced teachers and their respective classes. Despite identical training and debate structures, the quality of student debates varied substantially across classrooms. All discussions began with one-sided arguments, but some evolved into extended critical and responsive exchanges, reflecting a higher level of transactive dialogue. This variation may be attributed to differences in the thematic input provided by each teacher, suggesting that the nature of didactic scaffolding merits further investigation.