{"id":9729,"date":"2016-10-19T20:40:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T03:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=9729"},"modified":"2016-10-19T20:40:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T03:40:52","slug":"thinking-critically-about-critical-thinking-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/thinking-critically-about-critical-thinking-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"circular<\/a>Having skimmed a few times through our brief reading this week, I decided to take an experimental approach and frame my essay as a practice in critical thinking. Thus, I pondered a question that emerged as I read our material, and use that initial question to walk through the process introduced by Elder and Paul to do my own critical thinking exercise:<\/p>\n

Can or Should Critical Thinking be Adopted in Non-Western Contexts? <\/em>[What question am I raising?]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The central aim [purpose] <\/strong>of this essay is to question the universality of advocating critical thinking. I am concerned with the method of critical thinking being applied or encouraged in contexts other than Western (ie. European and Euro-American) contexts. The foundations of critical thinking are based on Greek philosophy, emerging from the Socratic method, passing through Thomas Aquinas\u2019 systematic reasoning, and modified by Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Dewey, and others; all of whom are (male) Europeans or Euro-Americans[1]<\/a>. While the Greco-European worldview has long held sway as the predominate perspective in my own education and the experience of American schoolchildren, it is not the only way to understand the world; there are other valid worldviews. [Information]<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a Euro-American [Point of View]<\/strong>, I am comfortable with this method of thinking critically: I grew up in the American school system and my own context encourages questioning assumptions, being open-minded, offering well-thought out opinions, communicating linearly, and using abstract ideas to interpret information.[2]<\/a> That being said, I have also had the opportunity to spend ample time living among neighbors in an extremely different context, who see the world differently than I do. [Experience]<\/strong> As I worked and lived among the Turkana of extreme rural northern Kenya, I recognized that their view of the world differed greatly from mine. My Turkana friends have no difficulty in identifying broken relationships through extispicy, that is, reading and interpreting goat entrails. They understand that ancestors readily speak through living people. And they have seen the dead returned to life through Christian leaders praying for them. All of this makes my head spin.<\/p>\n

While the Turkana understand the world differently than I do, they also process and communicate differently, too. As a culture that values the group over the individual, maintaining healthy community relationships takes precedence over a single person\u2019s needs or opinions. It becomes detrimental to the community when opinions are shared, or even more so, when disagreements arise. [Assumption] <\/strong>This may be seen as problematic when introducing the concept of critical thinking into this context. My other concern is a hesitancy to impose a foreign perspective on them, thus perpetuating colonial imperialism. Finally, the idea of this question was formed through an informal conversation I had with Stephen Garner during our Advance, regarding the participation of Maori students at the school of theology in New Zealand where he is head. The school faces the challenge of Maori students entering the school with different learning and communication styles and, while the administration seeks to honor and respect the cultural differences, they also have to adhere to accreditation standards.<\/p>\n

As I approached this essay with all this in mind, I sought information from those more familiar with teaching critical thinking in a non-western context [Point of View]<\/strong>. While my brief<\/em> search was unable to find a source conversing about this from an African context, I did discover research done in an Asian context, specifically Japan. I realize this does not fully resolve the dilemma for my specific problem, but the author raised valid concepts that helped me understand this issue from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

Christopher Long, writing for the Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, argues that \u201cpeople from different cultures can potentially bring different strengths and weaknesses to the critical thinking process. This reasoning\u2026 argues that although there are many aspects of critical thinking that seems difficult for Japanese students (e.g., expressing their own opinions, questions the opinions of others out loud) there are other aspects which they seem to learn easily (e.g. resist jumping to conclusions, seeking to understand multiple perspectives).\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Long\u2019s conclusion suggests that \u201cWe must work to expand our definition of critical thinking beyond our own cultural expectations\u2026. Moreover, we must refrain from the tendency to evaluate our students based on culture-specific standards. Just because our students are not opinionated, it doesn\u2019t mean they are not thinking critically.\u201d[4]<\/a> Other scholars would concur that, while communication techniques may vary among cultures, there is not conclusive evidence that the critical thinking method is not suitable in a particular context.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

I do not want to quickly abandon my own premise that espousing critical thinking in non-Western contexts doesn\u2019t translate well and may even be imperialistic. But neither am I ready to disregard the research by Long and others. What am I missing? Perhaps the irony of this exercise is that all three authors I\u2019ve resourced are also European or Euro-American. Until I have the opportunity to listen to the perspective [Point of View] <\/strong>of an insider\u2014that is, someone not of European descent (and even, preferably, a Turkana), I cannot<\/em> make a determined conclusion on the use of critical thinking in a non-Western context [Conclusion]<\/strong>. In order to make a solid case for or against embracing a\u00a0critical thinking model universally, voices from non-Western contexts must be listened to and reflected upon [Implications]<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cA Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking\u201d, The Critical Thinking Company. <\/em>Accessed October 18, 2016. http:\/\/www.criticalthinking.org\/pages\/a-brief-history-of-the-idea-of-critical-thinking\/408<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Richard Paul and Linda Elder, The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools<\/em> (Dillon Beach, CA:The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2009), 2.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Christopher J. Long, \u201cTeaching Critical Thinking in Western and Non-Western Contexts: Cultural Imperialism and Practical Necessity,\u201d Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics <\/em>(2003): 3, http:\/\/www.paaljapan.org\/resources\/proceedings\/2003\/long.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Long, 8.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> cf. Michelle Vyncke, \u201cThe Concept and Practice of Critical Thinking in Academic Writing: an Investigation of International Students\u2019 Perceptions and Writing Experiences\u201d (MA Diss. King\u2019s College London, 2012). \u00a0AND<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert B. Kaplan, \u201cCultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education,\u201d Language Learning, <\/em>16:1-2 (1966): 1-20.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having skimmed a few times through our brief reading this week, I decided to take an experimental approach and frame my essay as a practice in critical thinking. Thus, I pondered a question that emerged as I read our material, and use that initial question to walk through the process introduced by Elder and Paul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[290,796,292,920],"class_list":["post-9729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-elder","tag-lgp7","tag-paul","tag-turkana","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}