Individualised and instrumentalised? Critical thinking, students and the optics of possibility within neoliberal higher education

Abstract

Individualised and instrumentalised? Critical thinking, students and the optics of possibility within neoliberal higher education Article (Accepted Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Danvers, Emily (2019) Individualised and instrumentalised? Critical thinking, students and the optics of possibility within neoliberal higher education. Critical Studies in Education.

Working with critical reflective pedagogies at a moment of post-truth populist authoritarianism

“…There is potential for it to be utilised in an individualising way which runs counter to collective resistance (Danvers 2019); however, the material presented here is indicative of its transformative possibilities when used in conjunction with a variety of opportunities to process, articulate, dialogue and potentially engage in problem-solving. Whilst reflection can be done in isolation and in some cases can reinforce westerncentric notions of an individualised 'knowing subject' (Sheik 2020), learners are encouraged to critically consider multiple selves, knowledges and ways of being.…”

“…Macfarlane and Gourlay (2009) writing from the context of professional education raise the prospect that reflection as assessment runs the risk of learners strategically conforming to institutional norms; however in these contexts there may be an absence of criticality and considerations of wider structures. There is, especially with assessed work, the possibility that students will write what they think lecturers want to hear (Smith 2011) and perform their criticality in instrumental ways (Danvers 2019); nevertheless, the progress students make and integrity and insight they bring to their writing is tangible. As an educator I witness the developing critical awareness, insights and articulations in written work and class discussions; much of this work is formative and the trust built over time means learners feel free to express opinions and have opportunities to interrogate these.…”

“…Critical reflection is not an isolated activity divorced from other learning activities but provides space and time to process, make links, explore, question and apply different lenses. Ideally therefore, critical reflection means to look inwards, interrogating preconception and experiences (Mezirow 1981) and outwards, at structures and power disparities which contribute to shaping those experiences (Danvers 2019;Freire 1970) with the ultimate aim of transforming those structures.…”

On (not) being the master’s tools: five years of ‘Changing University Cultures’

“…For Moten and Harney (2004, 101, 105), this community is 'always at war, always in hiding', and must 'sneak into the university and steal what [it] can.' The undercommons may be shrinking in the context of increased workloads, surveillance and monitoring regimes for academics (Gill 2010), and growing instrumentality amongst students (Danvers 2019). However, its continued power is attested by the fact that inter-disciplines such as gender and critical race studiesand individuals within them -are the focus of the right-wing culture wars proliferating across the world (Chatterjee and Maira 2014).…”

Reimagining the Higher Education Student

“…There is, indeed, a contradiction between how students are imagined as vulnerable, censorious subjects, closed off to new knowledge and 'real learning' and the growth of campus activism in various spheres from campaigns against sexual misconduct, the movement to decolonise the curriculum and protests against rising fees and costs of university living. Reflecting on this tension, Danvers (2019) argues that at the same time as critics of contemporary HE and its students decry the creeping anti-intellectual and anti-democratic cultures which supposedly undermine critical thinking 'the academy is simultaneously and inseparably alive with more recognisably "deconstructive" criticality' (p. 3). Citing high-profile student-led movements in the UK, Danvers illuminates the contradiction between everyday critical thinking and political activism, and the kinds of critical learning and knowledge exchange that has come to characterise the values of universities and the value of university graduates.…”