Abstract
Abstract: This article reports on an ethnographic multiple case study in Greece. It explores teachers’ practices regarding the education of critically thinking citizens ten years into the implementation of an integrated curriculum reform. By means of classroom observations and semi-structured interviews this research explored the role of critical thinking in the classrooms. Findings suggest that teachers refrain from practices that advance critical thinking skills and pupils’ empowerment. Instead they tend to implement traditional practices, while their work is largely determined by the standards of achievement set by University Entrance Exams and parents’ aspirations. The article concludes that prevailing expectations in the Greek primary school interfere with the development of pedagogical relationships that would promote critical thinking obstructing the attainment of the aims of the integrated curriculum reform and compromising the project for democratic citizenship.
Highlights
This paper reports on an ethnographic multiple case study research conducted in five primary schools in Greece aiming to document the role of critical thinking in everyday practices in school and its intertwining with the teaching and practices for democratic citizenship
Educational research conducted during the 1980s is associated with the development of critical thinking as essential for developing the ability to participate in a democratic inclusive society (Walters, 1994), while over the course of the past three decades critical thinking has been included in educational programmes and curricula around the world (Hamers; Overtoom, 1997)
The findings suggest that in the Greek primary school democratic citizenship is challenged by mentalities and practices that hamper the development of pupils’ critical thinking, by the denial of pluralism, the exclusion of reference groups from the participatory processes and, by the failure to recognise the forces that shape power relations and the content of knowledge
Summary
This paper reports on an ethnographic multiple case study research conducted in five primary schools in Greece aiming to document the role of critical thinking in everyday practices in school and its intertwining with the teaching and practices for democratic citizenship. The theoretical premise of the research lies on the critical importance of critical thinking for the development of democratic citizenship in school. From the perspective of philosophy, critical thinking has been associated with the concept of reason and the idea of rationality, and it has been understood as “good thinking” 360) adopting a critical perspective to the concept of citizenship and its relationship to critical thinking argue: Ten Dam and Volman (2004, p. 360) adopting a critical perspective to the concept of citizenship and its relationship to critical thinking argue:
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