Introduction
17
elements of what a critical thinker
is
or
should be
; the work of those interested
in criticality aims to identify what a critical thinker
does
and can
become.
In
turn, the implications for higher education on producing critical beings also
holds out a promise for what
higher education
can be, which, however, especially
given the corporate nature of the university, it seldom is at present (Cowden
and Singh 2013)
Criticality, then, is a
wider
concept than critical thinking, as it has been gen-
erally defined by educational philosophers. To some extent it subsumes critical
thinking. One outcome of this wider concept being taken up, of course, is that
it suggests a wider set of responsibilities befalling higher education profession-
als, that is, teachers and academics, than that of (simply) imparting skills in
argumentation, or developing in students a capacity for rational “reflection” or
decision making, or even cultivating critical thinking dispositions. Educating
for criticality, in contrast, holds out a sense that higher education can become
(more) a process of
radical
development than merely a cognitive process. It cap-
tures a sense of enabling students to reach a level of “transformatory critique”
(i.e., to live and breathe as a critical thinker, to become an
exemplar
of what it
means to be a critical being).
The axis diagram revisited
The concerns of the criticality movement arose, as we have seen, in reaction
to the narrow emphasis of previous accounts of critical thinking. These previ-
ous accounts view critical thinking in terms of individual skills, dispositions,
and abilities. While proponents of the criticality dimension certainly do not
eschew these important individual facets of critical thinking entirely (indeed,
they endorse their importance), the criticality perspective adds something
Critical person
Critical reason
Critical self-
reflection
Critical action
Figure 0.2
The intersection between critical reason, critical self-reflection, and critical
action (Barnett 1997, 105).
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