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Who is the critical thinker in higher education? A feminist re-thinking

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posted on 2023-06-09, 12:34 authored by Emily DanversEmily Danvers
Higher education's policy demands and pedagogical practices often take as their ‘desirable’ subject an unspecified body, failing to interrogate who the student is (and is not) in relation to differentiated access to power, privilege, and opportunity structures. This paper offers a feminist critique of such decontextualised theorisations of students and their critical thinking. Observation, focus group and interview data were collected with undergraduate social-science students at a UK university. This data revealed how students experience critical thinking as embodied, contingent and specifically gendered – with 90% of students naming a male when asked to describe a critical thinker. Consequently, this paper argues that who occupies a desirable position as a student critical thinker is not neutral or given, but intersects with students’ embodied characteristics and the (increasingly divisive) socio-political context in which criticality is performed. Access to this key intellectual premium is therefore differentiated, raising questions around epistemic inclusion.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Teaching in Higher Education

ISSN

1356-2517

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

5

Volume

23

Page range

548-562

Department affiliated with

  • Education Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-03-20

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-11-30

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-03-20

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