Academic Writing: Social Sciences​ Introduction to Argumentation

These two samples are two approaches to a similar questions: how can we understand multiple ways of knowing in teaching and learning systems and structures that are primarily based in colonialist practices? and what are actions and practices that work toward including those multiple ways of knowing in purposeful ways? In the excerpt from my doctoral dissertation, I include de Sousa Santos’ concept of cognitive justice and Miranda Fricker’s explanation of epistemic injustice as a framework for interpreting the feedback on academic writing and the thoughts about that feedback that the participants in the study shared with me. The excerpt from the conclusion of the dissertation includes some ways in which instructors and institutions can provide feedback that is supportive of multiple ways of knowing.

The examples of polling that are included demonstrate a way that, in my academic writing classes, I have been able to include ideas and voices that may otherwise be silent because of the modalities that I have used for student participation in courses. These polls, completed using a polling app, provide a way for students to share thoughts in a less high-stakes way. Because of the anonymity of the polling, there is less pressure to ‘get it right’ and more possibility to share a thought or idea that may seem like a risk for the student. These are samples of polls that I might use at the beginning or the end of the class session. Student participation in these is quite robust and offers me also a glimpse into how they are engaging with the concepts we are discussing in class.

Bio: Joanne Struch, Ph.D I have been involved in teaching and learning in a number of contexts for 25 years including at a college overseas, as a program coordinator at the University of Winnipeg, and as the director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at a private vocational college. I am currently a department Chair in the School of Continuing Education at Red River College Polytechnic and an academic writing instructor at The University of Winnipeg.