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Cultural Variance, Critical Thinking, and Indigenous Knowledges: Exploring a Both-Ways Approach

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The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education

Abstract

Critical thinking is generally considered to be one of the most crucial attributes in the Western processes of knowledge assemblage and creation and is therefore carefully nurtured in traditional higher education institutions. In Western knowledge systems, critical thinking is considered to drive not only knowledge production but also innovation and development, while it is intimately linked to a colonial history in which “progress” has been the key focus and driving force. Not coincidentally then the university as a “research and development” institution has played a central role in this colonial history. From an Indigenous point of view, such “progress” has been viewed with ambivalent feelings at best, but more often with suspicion and skepticism for good reasons (Tuhiwai Smith 1999).

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Authors
  1. Sharon K. Chirgwin
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  2. Henk Huijser
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Martin Davies Ronald Barnett

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© 2015 Martin Davies and Ronald Barnett

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Chirgwin, S.K., Huijser, H. (2015). Cultural Variance, Critical Thinking, and Indigenous Knowledges: Exploring a Both-Ways Approach. In: Davies, M., Barnett, R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137378057_21

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