Telling Stories, Making Arguments: Responding to Personal Experience in Classroom Discussions of Social Justice Issues

Abstract

Storytelling is among the most powerful tools in a university professor's pedagogy. Students, too, tell stories—but while the professor's story is usually an example meant to introduce or support an argument based on other forms of evidence, students often deploy their personal stories as arguments, conflating pathos and logos and presenting personal experience as the ultimate evidence. This session examines the complex dynamics of this common classroom situation and explores a variety of ways to use such moments positively to deepen the classroom encounter.