Emily Danvers: critical thinking as a social act

Critical thinking is one of those concepts that we teach and use with students, but Emily Danvers makes clear that it is actually much more complex, contextual and contingent than it might first appear. It’s a practice of asking deliberate questions about knowledge and claims to truth, and it can very much depend on who you are, what you’re thinking about, and why. It also involves a type of confidence - do you have the right to ask these questions? Do you feel you’ll be listened to? And this is where the moves to decolonise higher education are so important, because it challenges established ideas about what the right kind of thinker looks like. We all know what those established ideas are - and so does AI. White, middle-aged, male; these deeply ingrained assumptions are hard to break. 

But critical thinking isn’t individual. Like identity - a key influence - it is a social act, and students may not want to engage in discussions that threaten or challenge their identity, as separating the ideas from the person can feel impossible. This might be more than we can achieve alone in the classroom, but critical thinking offers a new way of thinking about something, and writing affords a possibility for the slow and deep thinking that supports it. Together, we can work to open up critical thinking for all our students.

The resources we mentioned

Criado Perez, C. (2019). Invisible women: Exposing data bias in a world designed for men. Chatto & Windus.

Mohanty, C. T. 2003. “‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity Through Anticapitalist Struggles.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28 (2): 499–535. doi: 10.1086/342914 And the article we talked about

Danvers, E. (2018) Who is the critical thinker in higher education? A feminist re-thinking, Teaching in Higher Education, 23(5), 548-562, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2018.1454419