fields of “critical thinking” and “critical pedagogy” and identifies elements that go beyond
the former in order to contribute towards an analytical framework for critical pedagogy in
citizenship education.
Critical Thinking
While conceptions of critical thinking in the literature tend to be based around the
application of logic and being able to reach ‘sound’ conclusions (Doddington 2008, p.
109), there is disagreement within the field as to the extent to which critical thinking can
go deeper, potentially developing a moralistic (focusing on values) or ideological (focusing
on power) concern in students. Giroux (1994) argues that a moral orientation is entirely
missing from most conceptions of critical thinking, and this is echoed by Lipman (2003)
who suggests that with regard to his three ‘categories of thinking’ (critical, creative and
caring), critical thinking is a ‘theoretic science’, entirely separate from the emotional,
‘moral’ category of ‘caring thinking’. Moon (2008, p. 56), however, holds that critical
thinking that involves metacognitive activity (thinking about one’s thinking) or that
concerns critical thinking ‘as a way of being’ is ‘deeper’ than thinking that concerns skills
and processes only. Martin (1992) goes further in arguing that critical thinking is founded
in moral perspectives and should be motivated by concerns for a more just and humane
world but is clearly in the minority within the field of critical thinking (Burbules and Berk
1999).
The scope of critical thinking for becoming more than just “thinking” is also
disputed. Barnett (1997) argues that it must include ‘disciplinary competence’
(knowledge); ‘critical self-reflection’ (metacognition) and ‘critical action’, but the call for
critical action does not reflect the position of most critical thinkers, as it transgresses into
the domain of critical pedagogy rather than the typically more apolitical critical thinking.