Four Tools for Critical Inquiry in History, Social Studies, and Civic Education

Bibliographic Data

ID4518436
AuthorsAngela Bermúdez (0000-0003-1405-6438, Universidad de Deusto, corresponding author)
Year2015
Issue52
Pages102-118
Publication date2015-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevista de Estudios Sociales (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0123-885X • E-ISSN: 1900-5180
PublisherUniversidad de los Andes (PUBLISHER • VE)
DOI10.7440/res52.2015.07
OpenAlexW2157193124
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited32

The promotion of critical thinking is an important but elusive goal in history, social studies, and civic education. Teachers often struggle to translate general definitions of critical thinking into specific pedagogical tools to plan learning activities and to observe and interpret student work in these subjects. They also struggle to distinguish between "teaching critical content" and "teaching students to think critically." In this paper, I draw upon scholarship on critical thinking, history education, moral education, and critical pedagogy to propose four tools for critical inquiry in the social domain: Problem-posing, Reflective skepticism, Multi-perspectivity and Systemic thinking. I describe how each tool works, discussing how they integrate the epistemic purpose of fostering good understanding with the social purpose of cultivating thoughtful, responsible, pluralist and non-violent citizens

Critical literacy · Critical pedagogy · Critical reading · Critical theory · Critical thinking · Epistemology · Literacy · Pedagogy · Political science · Promotion (chess · Reading (process · Scholarship · Skepticism · Social studies · Sociology · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educational Assessment and Pedagogy · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Psychology