Argue for Criticality The Potential of Argumentation and Critical Thinking in the English Subject in Swedish Upper-Secondary School

Sammanfattning: The steering documents for Swedish upper-secondary school set great store by the cultivation of critical thinking. It is one of the overarching aims. Yet, statistics indicate that young Swedes are not as good at critical thinking as students from some other countries of comparable socioeconomic status (World Economic Forum 7). One way to address this problem might be to teach argumentation. The goal of this paper is to examine to what extent chapter three in Writing Logically, Thinking Critically—a textbook about argumentation and critical thinking—succeeds in helping students develop critical thinking skills through training in argumentation. To examine this, a materials analysis of said chapter is conducted using Ian McGrath’s checklist method. The examination is based in Richard Andrews’s theory that argumentation and critical thinking are in an interdependent relationship, a theory that this research paper supports. In this study, it is proposed that although said chapter does not seem to address critical thinking in full, it seems likely to be suitable for teaching critical thinking to a certain extent. Findings indicate that said chapter seems to address careful analysis, rationality, and discriminating thought successfully, but open-mindedness and dialectical thinking not at all. Therefore, it is concluded that teachers should search beyond said chapter in their attempts to teach argumentation and critical thinking, which the steering documents imply they should teach.