Introduction
23
age—to expand the efficiency with which vast, if not infinite, amounts of data
can be assimilated. What counts here is speed of response, measured even in
microseconds, with computers programmed to make such responses twenty-
four hours per day. This is, as it has been described, an “algorithmic capital-
ism” (Peters 2014). Critical thinking, on the other hand, betokens a different
rhythm, of care, reflection, and repose.
Critical thinking also draws on a particular set of motivations in bringing
a critique of forces and institutions that would rather press on, untroubled by
critical examination. Ultimately, what is at issue here, in critical thinking, is
the concern to enlarge freedom, whether cognitive, discursive, personal, or
even societal freedom. But it is at least arguable that educational institutions—
including higher education institutions—are being co-opted into the service
of the global knowledge economy. So the space for critical thought may be
diminishing at precisely a moment when it is especially needed.
But, as we have seen, theorists and educationalists who have given thought
to the matter differ profoundly over fundamental aspects of critical thought or
criticality. They differ over what is to count as critical thinking, over its pur-
poses and its scope, and the way in which teaching might help to encourage
it among students. So any campaign in favor of criticality is—it may seem—
bedeviled at the outset by deep schisms within the academic and educational
communities.
A first step in the matter must surely be the bringing together of the dif-
ferent points of view, not least to see how they are exemplified in different
pedagogical situations—of teaching, learning, curriculum design, and so on.
That is what we have attempted to do in this volume. It is a start but no more
than that.
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