Critical Thinking, Epistemic Cognition and the Teaching of Archival Analysis in Political Science

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This article makes a contribution to qualitative research pedagogy by presenting a framework for the incorporation of critical thinking skills into the teaching of archival and documentary analysis in political science. The paper argues that recent work on the behavioral dimensions of the acquisition of critical thinking skills opens up new avenues for the measurement and assessment of those skills and that archival analysis is particularly appropriate in this regard given its potential for providing corroborating or challenging evidence for students of political science. The article will offer a critical overview of beliefs and virtue models as approaches to achieving the goals of epistemic education, before discussing preparation for archival analysis in political science. It will then illustrate some of the key elements of a critical approach to archives drawing on selected material from the author’s research conducted on UK-China relations over the future of Hong Kong. It then turns to analyze issues of measurement and assessment in relation to critical thinking and a sample exercise for the application of epistemic cognition to the teaching of archival analysis in political science is given in the conclusion.