This book navigates global educational policy concerning critical thinking skills and competencies. The author explores the concept of criticality from the perspectives of several critical traditions, and draws on the works of Paulo Freire and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The diverse and intricate ideas, methods and ways of thinking that emerge are examined in the new perspectival space of 'criticality scholarship'. Pursuing his own political and philosophical aspirations, the author endeavours to link a critical education with the promotion of democracy and social justice. Opportunities for further empirical and theoretical research are signposted. The book will be of interest to scholars in educational philosophy.
Part 1: Introduction.- Chapter 1: Perspectival Horizons .- Part 2: Educational Policy.- Chapter 2: Maintained Schools in England.- Chapter 3: Critical Thinking Models.- Part 3: Democracy and Social Justice.- Chapter 4: Walking my own path towards Democracy and Social Justice.- Chapter 5: Freire's Dream of a Free and Inclusive Democratic Society.- Chapter 6: Wittgenstein as an Advocate for Social and Political Change.- Part 4: Thinking.- Chapter 7: What is Criticality?.- Chapter 8: Conceptions of Criticality.- Chapter 9: What is a Critical Education?.- Chapter 10: Who is the Critical Being?.- Chapter 11: Freire, Wittgenstein and Criticality.- Chapter 12: Freire, Wittgenstein and the Critical Being.-Part 5: Knowing.- Chapter 13: Ways of Knowing.- Chapter 14: Freire, Wittgenstein and Aesthetics, Ethics and Religious Belief.- Part 6: Reflections.- Chapter 15: Findings, Recommendations and Next Steps.- Chapter 16: Remarks in Closing.
Marc James Deegan is a retired Australian and English barrister and a former legal academic. He works with Reader Services in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, UK.
