What relationship can there be between the results of an international educational test, such as PISA, and the democratic quality of a country?
Only twenty-five fully functioning democracies remain in the world . The democratic system is weak because it requires the exchange of diverse viewpoints among its free and equal citizens. These citizens are obligated to construct arguments to defend their positions before others, tolerate differences, and seek consensus.
The British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) explained that a free society depends on the ability of its citizens to question dominant ideas and discuss their own convictions. Regarding pedagogy, John Dewey (1859-1952) also pointed out that democracy is a way of life that depends on the ability of its citizens to understand complex problems.
School is not merely a place to acquire specific knowledge ; it is also where essential tools for democratic citizenship should be developed, such as the ability to understand others and critical thinking. In fact, the PISA report reveals the shortcomings of schools in preparing future citizens for democracies. This is not just an educational problem, but a social and political one as well.
Critical thinking and democracy
Democracy needs critical thinking as much as critical thinking needs democracy . Critical thinking allows students, first and foremost, to question information and restore social cohesion , as well as to select, prioritize, and justify the ideas that form a sound argument . Furthermore, it strengthens the ability to detect fake news . The question is how to increase the learning of critical thinking in democratic societies.
In an “information-saturated” society that consumes more “content” than ever before, the essential thing is for citizens to understand the mechanisms of persuasion. We have known the techniques and practices of persuasive discourse since at least the 5th century BCE. Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian trace a lineage that extends to the popular books of Dale Carnegie and the strategies of contemporary communications departments. We are talking about rhetoric.
Rhetoric as a superpower
Rhetoric was never (just) the simple repertoire of literary figures and tropes used in commentaries on school texts. It studies and teaches the techniques that enable a person to persuade their intended audience. This skill becomes essential for navigating a media landscape saturated with misinformation . For example, rhetorical devices are used to appeal to fear and polarization with the intention of generating divergent narratives, which the average listener easily assimilates if they lack critical thinking skills .
Various teaching experiences and works agree that teaching sections of classical rhetoric, such as the parts of speech or argumentative fallacies – such as ad hominem , those in which the speaker is attacked personally and not the arguments used, or false cause , in which the relationship of two facts does not imply that one causes the other – improves analytical objectivity and provides students with tools for conceptual defense against manipulative discourses.
Rhetoric allows students to move from a poor level of written expression to an ability to defend their own voice , protecting them against manipulation and social fragmentation .
This skill is transversal and useful to any discipline, from the sciences to the humanities .
Defending yourself against misinformation
But where rhetoric truly shines is in the fight against disinformation. Recent studies show that even university students (who are assumed to have a more critical mindset and greater digital literacy) are unable to discern the truthfulness of news and are demanding specific training in this area.
The evidence shows that, indeed, when this training is provided, critical thinking increases exponentially. However, developing critical thinking is useless if students lack the will, the institutions, and the places to apply it , such as workplaces and, especially, educational institutions.
Basic democratic skills
In contemporary society, where the influence of audiovisual media has displaced the written word, where cultural struggles bog down any discussion, where truth is confused with plausibility, a practical and continuous rhetorical education becomes essential to form citizens resistant to the mechanisms of persuasion and propaganda.
Given its relationship with the development of critical thinking, the teaching of rhetoric at all educational levels (including university) is not only an academic objective, but a basic skill for citizens living in today’s threatened democracies.
Author Bio: Jorge Jiménez-Ramírez is Full Professor of Applied Linguistics and Communication at the European University
