Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy: coincidences and complementarities

Abstract

The article links two important pedagogical currents that have made criticism their hallmark: Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy. The main aim of this work is not to point out the differences between the two currents -as usually done in academic reflection-, but to identify their coincidences and complementarities. In the first and second parts of this article, we introduce each current: the traditions they belong to, reference authors, intellectual styles, practical applications… In the third part, we discuss three aspects in which both currents coincide or complement each other. Firstly, the fact that both John Dewey and Paulo Freire—the main referents of each current—agreed on the relevance of active critical thinking: the North American through the concept of experience; the Brazilian through the concept of praxis. Secondly, the main contributions of the two currents are complementary in that each one emphasizes different dimensions of critical thinking. Critical Thinking has rigorously conceptualized this type of thinking and provided methods, techniques, materials, and activities to develop it. Critical Pedagogy, has focused on the direction of critical thinking, questioning inequality and power relations in today's society and understanding education as a form of social transformation. In other words, while one current has focused on the "what" of critical thinking, the other one has focused on the "why". Finally, the two currents coincide in an omission: they have given very little consideration to European pedagogical achievements that have been, avant la lettre, fully consistent with both Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy.

Key words: critical thinking, critical pedagogy, critical pedagogy, experience, praxis, reflective thinking.