^That’s the crux. There’s no shortage of research/teaching of content & practices that would fit under the umbrella of “critical thinking.” The issue is that it’s such a bloated signifier it has basically no explanatory power—which is a HUGE issue considering how often it’s referenced in ed circles!

It’s paradoxical ubiquity and lack of clarity has randomly become one of my pet peeves, but its an opinion that has earned me some side eye on more than one occasion. 😬 It’s a really important point though, and one I think should be discussed more.

I think this problem shows why "philosophers should engage more" is an incomplete framing. As a philosopher, I think yes, we should. But I also think that lack of engagement goes both ways. Too much ed research either avoids epistemology or pays it the most cursory of lip service.

Philosophy's at best qual in a research context that wants quant, so once a theoretical basis is waved at, research programs that toss around this terminology without intention keep reproducing themselves because that's where the citations that will get you past peer review live.

And it's not just HS. It's a huge problem in HE SoTL, where a lot of my work is. If I had a dime for every paper that said "Aristotle says…" and then moves on like nothing's happened in the ensuing 2,300 years, I'd have a lot of dimes. It's maddening.

Finally, as a hopefully helpful note, while there aren't a ton of pedagogically-focused philosophers or philosophers of education who focus on HS, they do exist. Check out groups like PLATO and journals like Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice. www.plato-philosophy.org

100% agree that ed schools & scholars would benefit from deeper engagement with philosophy, but I think there are bigger issues. IMO, the disjuncture between disciplines is bad, but the K12/academia divide is worse. So gurus, consultants, & companies can fill that gap & sell (CT branded) snake oil.

it’s real weird

and so easy to co-opt

Critical thinkers know how to question sources, notice patterns, and think deeply about complex problems. That’s how they know that Bill Gates and 5G cell phone towers are what *really* caused COVID! Jokes aside, critical thinking is a skill easily claimed by conspiracy cranks and academics alike.

That said, there are some interesting models out there for naming & operationalizing more precise skills that roughly approximate to what I think ELA folks mean by CT. E.g. Mark Bracher’s work exploring how teachers might pair literary studies & systems thinking to cultivate “social wisdom”.