I’ve started seeing an uptick in interest in civics and citizenship education. In Australia, this is perhaps not surprising – after all, the most recent NAP-CC data suggests that there has been little improvement from the poor levels of civic literacy reported in previous iterations, and the iterations before them. In fact, civic literacy appears to be, at best, static. Naturally enough, this has led to a number of publications and conversations pieces (such as in the article) either describing the problem or proposing solutions.
One area of proposed resolution is a focus on what is sometimes called critical thinking, or civic reasoning or even a form of epistemic cognition. This idea is present in international circles, too – the recent National Education Academy report had a distinct focus on this idea of civic reasoning as a mechanism to improving civic education, and I know of at least two well-funded national research programs that are focused on this idea. One part of me is frustrated at this – especially as the people undertaking this research often come from outside the field of civic and citizenship education and, indeed, education as a whole. I get annoyed quite quickly by proposed solutions to ‘the problems in education’ that don’t involve teachers being central to those solutions – as research participants, rather than research objects.
Another part of me welcomes the influx of new ideas – or at least new expertise to old ideas. I don’t think that arguing for more thoughtful engagement with critical thinking is necessarily a bad thing, but I’m not entirely certain that:
A) traditional notions of critical thinking are suitable in a civics and citizenship context
B) these ideas are that new at all
C) that these ideas are enough within the current context of civics and citizenship education.
In particular, point C particularly interests me – while I think we might all argue that teaching young people to think critically is a useful and valid skill, I don’t think this teaching is enough to necessarily change ideas and minds. After all, there are plenty of critical thinkers who quite happily argue for inhumane treatment of refugees, as one example. Rather, critical thinking needs to be situated within an emotional and value-laden context and experience.