Troubling the

concept: students’

experiences of

critical thinking in

higher education

Emily Danvers

Centre for Higher Education and Equity

Research (CHEER)

University of Sussex, UK

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer

The research in progress

• 2nd year of ESRC funded PhD• Interviews with 15 students at the beginning (Oct) and end (May) of

their 1st year at university. • 2 cohorts - an academic and a professional social science course at a

University in the South of England. Participant(ish) observation of both

cohorts in a compulsory module.• Following around the concept, interrogating what it makes possible/not

possible using Ahmed’s work on sociability and affect (2010) and

Berlant’s (2005) work on (un)happy futures.

Critical thinking as…

‘Part of the furniture’ in Higher Education.

Conceptualised in a number of ways:

• A mechanised skill for employability

akin to problem solving• A cognitive product of ordered, logical

thinking• An individual process of self-reflection • The force behind social transformation

…As a tacit social practice (Anderson,

1997 as a normative practice (Bailin et.

al, 1999).

Emerging themes 1/2

Negotiating an affective tightrope

• Critical thinking associated with freedom, peace & empowerment but

also as a burden, overcomplicating things and killing joy.• Affective load over decision making and over speaking/not speaking

self-regulated by happiness/unhappiness discourses (Ahmed, 2010;

Ngai, 2005; Berlant, 2011) e.g. ‘you have to not let it consume you’. • Tension between sociability and social responsibility. Criticality posed in

opposition to ‘oh let's go with the flow, it'll be fine’.

Emerging themes – 2/2

Ontological repositioning or instrumentalism?

• Critical thinking as transformational ‘a film over the brain’ but also as

something disembodied ‘when I have my critical hat on’.• Critical thinking as a mark of social/moral distinction ‘[Critical thinking allows

me to] make myself look better because I know how to speak’ and ‘that’s

where some people might stop’. A process of noise becoming voice (Biesta,

2010).• Critical thinking as a purification ritual of self-improvement – is this the neo-

liberal self-project at work? Is this instrumentalism a consequence of the

marketisation of higher education? • Critical thinking constantly presented as inactive and insular - ‘sitting down

and thinking critically’ – where does this leave spaces for social resistance?

(Giroux, 2011)

Initial Conclusions

Critical thinking…

• Is not a straightforward ‘doing’ – it is a continually negotiated performance – between words, spaces and bodies

• Is anything but ‘rational’ – brimming with affect, with students walking an affective tightrope between sociability and critique

• Is not dead! These first-year students are incredibly hopeful about it’s transformational potential but what does it mean to desire critical thinking?

• Seems to be enacted through structures of difference though less obviously than I’d originally thought e.g. ‘people’s background might affect their ability to think critically’ but this requires further analysis

• Has, in places, taken on a highly instrumentalised form. Potentially this could be connected to shifting neo-liberal trends in higher education system that demand a certain kind of performativity

References

• Ahmed, S. (2010). The Promise of Happiness. Durham [N.C]: Duke

University Press.• Atkinson, D. (1997). A Critical Approach to Critical Thinking in TESOL.

TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 71-94.• Bailin, S., Case, R., Coombs, J. & Daniels, L. (1999). Conceptualising

Critical Thinking. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(3): 285-302. • Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel Optimism. Durham [N.C]: Duke University

Press.• Giroux, H. (2011). Occupy Colleges Now: Students as the New Public

Intellectuals. Truthout November 21, 2011• Ngai, S. (2005). Ugly Feelings. Cambridge[M.A]: Harvard University

Press.