Participation in Argumentation

Abstract

This paper presents a classroom episode where it becomes visible how critical participation in mathematical argumentation can be. Basil Bernstein’s conceptualization of pedagogic rights and their interpretation by Straehler-Pohl & Sertl sets the scene and the context in which we look at a classroom episode. We then analyse this episode from two complementary sociological approaches to shed light on participation in collective argumentation in the mathematics class: (1) Götz Krummheuer’s interaction-theory based approach whose analyses rely on Goffman’s idea of a decomposition of speaker roles; (2) our own approach based on Jürgen Habermas’ works on communicative action, and discourse ethics. This allows us to understand the complexity and relevance of classroom discourse for students’ experiences of pedagogic rights.