How can you apply any one of the theories of critical thinking in the elementary classroom in Pakistan? Give a specific example.
Course: Critical thinking and reflective practices
Course code 8611
Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment
Answer:
Critical Theory (or "Social
Critical Theory") is a school of thought that stresses the reflective
assessment and critique of society and culture by applying knowledge from the
social sciences and the humanities. As a term, Critical Theory has two meanings
with different origins and histories: the first originated in sociology and the
second originated in literary criticism, whereby it is used and applied as an umbrella
term that can describe a theory founded upon critique; thus, the theorist Max
Horkheimer described a theory as critical insofar as it seeks "to liberate
human beings from the circumstances that enslave them".
In sociology and political philosophy,
the term Critical Theory describes the neo-Marxist philosophy of the Frankfurt
School, which was developed in Germany in the 1930s. This use of the term
requires proper noun capitalization, whereas "a critical theory" or
"a critical social theory" may have similar elements of thought, but
not stress its intellectual lineage specifically to the Frankfurt School.
Frankfurt School theorists drew on the critical methods of Karl Marx and
Sigmund Freud. Critical Theory maintains that ideology is the principal
obstacle to human liberation.
Critical Theory was established
as a school of thought primarily by the Frankfurt School theoreticians Herbert
Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, and Erich Fromm.
Modern Critical Theory has additionally been influenced by György Lukács and
Antonio Gramsci, as well as the second-generation Frankfurt School scholars, notably
Jürgen Habermas.
In Habermas's work, Critical
Theory transcended its theoretical roots in German idealism and progressed
closer to American pragmatism. Concern for social "base and
superstructure" is one of the remaining Marxist philosophical concepts in much
of contemporary Critical Theory. While critical theorists have been frequently
defined as Marxist intellectuals, their tendency to denounce some Marxist
concepts and to combine Marxian analysis with other sociological and
philosophical traditions has resulted in accusations of revisionism by
Classical, Orthodox, and Analytical Marxists, and by Marxist-Leninist philosophers.
Martin Jay has stated that the first generation of Critical Theory is best
understood as not promoting a specific philosophical agenda or a specific ideology,
but as "a gadfly of other systems".
CRITICAL THEORY AND EDUCATION
Though relatively few
educators--including educational technologists--appear to concern themselves
directly with critical theory (McLaren, 1994a), several influential
educators are pursuing the theory in one or more of its current manifestations.
Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren are among the best-known of today's critical
theorists, and we find critical theorists working across a spectrum of intellectual
frames:
(postmodernism
(Peters, 1995); critical pedagogy (Kanpol, 1994); power (Apple, 1993;
Cherryholmes, 1988); teaching (Beyer, 1986; Gibson, 1986; Henricksen &
Morgan, 1990; Simon, 1992; Weiler & Mitchell, 1992); curriculum (Apple,
1990; Giroux, Penna & Pinar, 1981; Beyer & Apple, 1988; Pinar, 1988;
Castenell & Pinar, 1993); feminist pedagogies (Ellsworth, 1989a; Lather, 1991;
Luke & Gore, 1992); teacher education (Sprague, 1992); mass media/communications
studies (Hardt, 1993); vocational-technical studies (Davis, 1991); research
summaries about critical theory (Ewert, 1991); and research using methods of
the critical sciences (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; Grumet, 1992))
At least two publications attend
in-depth to Habermasian critical theory in education. Ewert (1991) has written
a comprehensive analysis of the relationships of Habermasian critical theory to
education, and in A Critical Theory of Education, Young (1990) tries to present
a rather complete picture of Habermas's critical theory and its relations to
education. Young says that critical theorists believe that extreme
rationalization has lent itself to the further development of an alienated culture
of manipulation. In the science of education, this led to a view of pedagogy as
manipulation, while the curriculum was divided into value-free subjects and
value-based subjects where values were located decisionistically. The older
view of pedagogy as a moral/ethical and practical art was abandoned (p. 20).
Young (1990) further points out
that Habermas and other critical theorists believe that: We are on the
threshold of a learning level characterized by the personal maturity of the
decentered ego and by open, reflexive communication which fosters democratic
participation and responsibility for all. We fall short of this because of the
one-sided development of our rational capacity for understanding (p. 23).
Another seminal thinker who is
responsible for several notions of critical theory in education is Paulo
Freire. Freire's work, especially Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1969), has
been very influential in critical education circles: Freire's project of
democratic dialogue is attuned to the concrete operations of power (in and out
of the classroom) and grounded in the painful yet empowering process of
conscientization.
This process embraces a critical
demystifying moment in which structures of domination are laid bare and
political engagement is imperative. This unique fusion of social theory, moral
outrage, and political praxis constitutes a kind of pedagogical politics of
conversation in which objects of history constitute themselves as active
subjects of history* ready to make a fundamental difference in the quality of
the lives they individually and collectively live. Freire's genius is to
explicate ... and exemplify ... the dynamics of this process of how ordinary
people can and do make history in how they think, feel, act, and love (West,
1993, p. xiii).
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