Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Findings, Recommendations and Next Steps

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Reflections on Criticality in Educational Philosophy

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Educational Philosophy and Theory ((PSEPT))

  • 12 Accesses

Abstract

What grounds criticality in a philosophical sense? What are some of the underlying principles of criticality? I make several observations concerning some of its features together with six key findings. I make two recommendations addressed specifically to policymakers. Then I signpost possibilities for further empirical and theoretical research into the concept that may be taken up within the field of criticality scholarship. I close by considering some of the implications my work may hold for scholars.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In Chapter 1, I said that I have chosen to use criticality to resolve democratic and social justice issues and therefore, to repeat Gert Biesta’s point, emancipation is operating dogmatically (Biesta 1998: 476). Part III of this book runs with that theme. I also stressed that criticality scholarship is not bounded by my approach and scholars are free to walk their own distinct paths.

  2. 2.

    Following convention, titles for Wittgenstein’s works are abbreviated (PG = Philosophical Grammar, PI = Philosophical Investigations, RPPII = Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology Volume 2, WV = Preface to the Dictionary for Elementary Schools and Z = Zettel), with section (§) or page number, and with the full citation and initials given in the References.

  3. 3.

    There are many philosophies, ways of thinking and lived experiences that shed light on the concept of criticality including Indigenous, feminist, critical race, Marxist, sexual preference, (dis-)able bodiedness, ethical and political thinking.

  4. 4.

    By way of clarification concerning the sciences, the formal sciences encompass formal systems including logic, algebra, geometry, artificial intelligence and computer science. Deductive, a priori reasoning rather than empirical methodology is key. The natural sciences involve the biological, chemical, physical, geological and cosmological study of natural phenomena. Empirical methodology is employed. There is a cross-over with applied sciences such as engineering and medicine, for example, where scientific methods and scientific forms of knowledge are used to attain practical goals. The social sciences include areas as diverse as law, politics, sociology, anthropology, economics, psychology, history and archaeology.

  5. 5.

    Greene (1995, 2011, 2017, 2018).

  6. 6.

    Greene (1995: 44, 2011: 70, 2017: 501).

  7. 7.

    Chapter 6; and see Deegan (2023: 4–5 and 12–13).

  8. 8.

    See also Pihama et al. (2019), Santos (2007, 2014), and Smith (2019).

  9. 9.

    See also Deegan (2023).

Referensces

  • Adorno, Theodor W. (1973) Negative Dialectics. Translated by E. B. Ashton. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barone, Tom and Elliot W. Eisner. (2012) Arts Based Research. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452230627

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, Walter. (1998) The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Translated by John Osborne. New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, Gert. (1998) ‘The Right to Philosophy of Education: From Critique to Deconstruction’, Philosophy of Education Archive, 476–484. https://ojs.education.illinois.edu/index.php/pes/article/download/2152/847

  • Bowell, Tracy and Justine Kingsbury. (2015) Virtue and Inquiry: Bridging the Transfer Gap. In Martin Davies and Ronald Barnett. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education (233–245). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Brookfield, Stephen D. (2012) Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. (2000) The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burbules, Nicholas C. (1998) ‘Modes of Criticality as Modes of Teaching’, Philosophy of Education Archive, 485–488. https://ojs.education.illinois.edu/index.php/pes/article/viewfile/2153/848

  • Burbules, Nicholas C. and Rupert Berk. (1999) Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy. In Thomas S. Popkewitz and Lynn Fendler. (eds.) Critical Theories in Education: Changing Terrains of Knowledge and Politics (45-65). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Care, Esther and Rebekah Luo. (2016) Assessment of Transversal Competencies: Policy and Practice in the Asia-Pacific Region. Paper Commissioned for UNESCO’s Bangkok office. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000246590

  • Carlgren, Terresa. (2013) ‘Communication, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving: A Suggested Course for All High School Students in the 21st Century’, Interchange, 44: 63–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-013-9197-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darder, Antonia. (2015) Freire and Education. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Maree J. and Lauren Willing. (2023) ‘An Examination of Teachers’ Beliefs About Critical Thinking in New Zealand High Schools’, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 48: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2023.101280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Martin and Ronald Barnett (eds.) (2015) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deegan, Marc James. (2023) ‘A Marxist Reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein: Making the Case for Social and Political Change’, Philosophy and Social Criticism, 0(0): 1–21, Ahead-of-Print. First published online 3 May 2023 by Sage Publications Ltd. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01914537231170907

  • Dewey, John. (1997) How We Think. Mineola: Dover Publications Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, John. (2016) Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. Hundredth Anniversary Edition. Edited by Todd Kettler. Promethean Press. www.promethean-press.com

  • Freire, Paulo. (2005) Education for Critical Consciousness. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, Paulo. (2014) Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Robert R. Barr. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, Paulo. (2017) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. London: Penguin Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, Paulo and Carman Hunter. (1984) ‘Know, Practice, and Teach the Gospels’, Religious Education, 79(4): 547–548. https://doi.org/10.1080/034408400790406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fricker, Miranda. (2007) Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (2013) Truth and Method. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. Revised Second Edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glock, Hans-Johann. (1996) A Wittgenstein Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, Maxine. (1995) Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, Maxine. (2011) ‘Releasing the Imagination’, NJ Drama Australia Journal, 34(1): 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/14452294.2011.11649524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, Maxine. (2017) Teaching as Possibility: A Light in Dark Times. In Antonia Darder, Rodolfo D. Torres and Marta P. Baltodano. (eds.), The Critical Pedagogy Reader. Third Edition (494–502). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, Maxine. (2018) Landscapes of Learning. 2018 Special Edition. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Budd L. and Rajesh Tandon. (2017) ‘Decolonization of Knowledge, Epistemicide, Participatory Research and Higher Education’, Research for All, 1(1): 6–19. https://doi.org/10.18546/RFA.01.1.02

  • Hart, H. L. A. (1961) The Concept of Law. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mabo v Queensland (No 2). (1992) 175 CLR 1. https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/1992/23.html

  • Medina, José. (2013) The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Monk, Ray. (1991) Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. London: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nesterova, Yulia. (2020) ‘Rethinking Environmental Education with the Help of Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Traditional Ecological Knowledge’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54(4): 1047–1052. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, Friedrich. (1999) The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Edited by Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs. Translated by Ronald Speirs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • NSWDoE. (2023) Critical Thinking. Sydney: New South Wales Department of Education. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/department-approved-courses/critical-thinking

  • Paul, Richard W. (1990) Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World. Rohnert Park: Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pihama, Leonie, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Naomi Simmonds, Joeliee Seed-Pihama and Kirsten Gabel. (eds.) (2019) Mana Wahine Reader: A Collection of Writings 1987–1998. Volume 1. Hamilton: Te Kotahi Research Institute, The University of Waikato.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plato. (1997) Complete Works. Edited by John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn, Patrick. (2000) ‘Teaching as Critical Communication: Some Philosophical Views’, Sats—Nordic Journal of Philosophy, 1(1): 27–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, John. (1972) A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • RCIADIC. (1991) Report of the Inquiry into the Death of Darren Steven Wouters. Adelaide: Australia, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/darren/1.html

  • Rowland, Stephen. (2006) The Enquiring University: Compliance and Contestation in Higher Education. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, Boaventura de Sousa. (2007) ‘Beyond Abyssal Thinking: From Global Lines to Ecologies of Knowledges’, Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 30(1): 45–89. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40241677

  • Santos, Boaventura de Sousa. (2014) Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. (2019) Getting Out From Downunder: Māori Women, Education and the Struggles for Mana Wahine. In Leonie Pihama, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Naomi Simmonds, Joeliee Seed-Pihama and Kirsten Gabel. (eds.) Mana Wahine Reader: A Collection of Writings 1987–1998. Volume 1 (89–104). Hamilton: Te Kotahi Research Institute, The University of Waikato.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stickney, Jeff. (2020) ‘Seeing Trees: Investigating Poetics of Place-Based, Aesthetic Environmental Education with Heidegger and Wittgenstein’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54(5): 1278–1305. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan, Charlene. (2017) ‘The Enactment of the Policy Initiative for Critical Thinking in Singapore Schools’, Journal of Educational Policy, 32(5): 588–603. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2017.1305452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1967) Zettel. Edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Berkley: University of California Press. [cited as Z]

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1974) Philosophical Grammar. Edited by Rush Rees. Translated by Anthony Kenny. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [cited as PG]

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1980) Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology. Volume 2. Edited by G. H. von Wright and Heikki Nyman. Translated by C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [cited as RPPII]

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1993) Preface to the Dictionary for Elementary Schools. In Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951 (15–27). Edited by James C. Klagge and Alfred Nordmann. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. [cited as WV]

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (2001) Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Third Edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. [cited as PI]

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Marc James Deegan

Authors
  1. Marc James Deegan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marc James Deegan .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Deegan, M.J. (2024). Findings, Recommendations and Next Steps. In: Reflections on Criticality in Educational Philosophy. Palgrave Studies in Educational Philosophy and Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57330-9_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57330-9_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-57329-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-57330-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation