“Valued” Thinking in Education: Liberating the Narrative

Our purpose in this paper is to forward a narrative of valued thinking in education—manifested as higher-order (HOT), critical thinking (CT), and critical-analytic thinking (CAT)—by overviewing its past and present, possible future. To uncover valued thought’s past, we examined the philosophical tradition spanning from Socrates to present analytic philosophy which champions a form of thought marked by inquiry and reasoning. In reviewing such schools of thought as rationalism, empiricism, and pragmatism, we underscore the value placed upon the nature of methods for finding knowledge. Tracing an exact lineage of valued thinking in the history of philosophy is beyond the current scope and virtually impossible in relation to specific manifestations such as HOT, CT, or CAT. Instead, we offer a narrative history of the ways in which philosophy has investigated and refined thought in pursuit of knowledge and knowing. We follow these philosophical roots into the burgeoning mid-life narrative of valued thinking in psychology and education. Despite the efforts of the American pragmatists (e.g., Dewey or James), the scientizing of psychology led to a decreased reliance on introspection and reflexivity and an increased emphasis on behaviorist and positivist methods through much of the 20th century. Further, despite tremendous efforts expended to understand what it means to think critically (e.g., the Delphi report), experts continue to grapple with its nature. The lack of conceptual precision and reduction of CT to a set of cognitive skills is largely disconnected from its philosophical underpinnings which concern not just matters of epistemology but also metaphysics and axiology. Conceptualizations and operationalizations of CT are constrained by narrow criteriological and normative perspectives, in which only certain methods of reasoning, epistemic goals, or evidentiary resources are deemed acceptable. While some iterations of CAT transcend narrow conceptions of epistemological justification, we posit that the field of educational psychology would benefit from seeking broader conceptions of CAT—conceptions that liberate the narrative of valued thinking by highlighting other ways of thinking and reasoning. Acknowledging our own role in perpetuating hegemonic ideologies, we humbly overview two theoretical perspectives (i.e., standpoint epistemology and critical pragmatism) that liberate non-traditional epistemic notions and center critical aspects of valued thinking. Standpoint epistemologists’ unifying premise is that knowledge stems from socially situated positions and that the process of meaning making is value-laden and subjective. Critical pragmatism draws on critical theory as well as pragmatism to emphasize the importance of experience and discourse as ways of coming to know and verifying knowledge. These two perspectives both underscore the ways that the social and political realms bear on meaning making. Within these progressive ideologies, scientists collaborate with “local knowers”—those who have firsthand, often minoritized, experiences—to investigate potential solutions for concrete problems and socially validate their interpretations through community- based discourse where all voices are heard. We close with implications of this narrative for the future of theory and practice surrounding valued forms of thinking. unknown unknown