Maha Bali [Al Fanar]: ...Worldwide, it is questionable how far college can develop critical thinking in students who don’t already have it. But even this kind of traditional criticality has failed on two fronts. First, most analyses of the Egyptian situation continue to be based on conspiracy theories to explain multiple conflicting realities, with little attention paid to evaluating evidence. Indeed, sometimes there just isn’t enough evidence or a search for evidence. Second, this approach does not prepare citizens to act upon their criticism. Such action, or “critical citizenship” can benefit from two alternative conceptions of critical thinking. The first conception borrows from the critical pedagogy movement originating in Paulo Freire’s work. Here, the end goal of critical thinking is to challenge the status quo in order to achieve social justice, collectively raising consciousness of conditions promoting oppression in order to achieve liberation. It is a form of critical thinking that promotes praxis – reflective action based on knowledge, rather than mere activism (which we have seen much of in Egypt in the past two years) or speech and dialogue unaccompanied by action (which we have been seeing for a longer time). It is not mere skepticism about separate facts, it is value-driven and historically situated questioning of power structures that lie beneath the surface. This kind of thinking may be easier to adopt when teaching social sciences and humanities, but more complex to include in the study of professions, such as business, and even more difficult in the study of sciences. But it is not impossible. For example, engineering courses can infuse elements of the social, economic and ethical impact of engineering practices. The second conception of critical thinking comes from a feminist understanding of critical thinking, based on Women’s Ways of Knowing by Mary Field Belenky and her colleagues. Their research indicated that women (and some men) tend to prefer more communal and less confrontational ways of learning, rather than the pedagogies usually associated with critical thinking such as debating. This preference to understand the view of “the other” before critiquing it resonates with Edward Said’s notion of philological hermeneutics (understanding a text from the author’s viewpoint before critiquing it). This approach widens one’s worldview and also involves elements of empathy missing from the traditional understanding of critical thinking, which prioritizes logic and rationality. The current situation in Egypt seems to me to fall on one of two sides: either complete skepticism regardless of evidence (sometimes even creating fictitious evidence); or complete and blind trust (as in the July 26 rallies in response to General Al-Sisi’s speech). There has also been widespread lack of empathy for how the ouster of Morsi would affect his numerous supporters. The way Egyptians keep dividing themselves, and doing so with passion, making possibilities for future reconciliation and a pluralistic society difficult, if not impossible... al-fanar.org/2013/08/critical-citizenship-for-critical-times/
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:12:23 +0000
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