Liberation in Education: What Role Do Liberatory Praxis and Theory Play in Fostering Critical Thinking?

Abstract

The revolutionary changes in ABET EC 2000 accreditation criteria promoted the address of critical thinking in engineering curricula by emphasizing such outcomes as ethics, social and global context, communication, lifelong learning and contemporary issues in addition to technical work in design and problem solving. However, the mainstream notion of critical thinking as used in the educational settings is often connected with the conceptions of reasoning and logic. Critical thinking is often seen as a skill in line with decision making and problem solving applications. The extent and degree of success of addressing critical thinking is still under question.Liberation as its own field of praxis and theory which has been excluded from formal education, can provide a unique contribution in changing status quo. For the oppressed to get engaged in the process of discovery and transformation, critical thinking is such a crucial component. In this paper, liberation as a program of praxis and theory will be introduced. Then considering different stages in a liberatory process, the role of critical thinking in liberation struggle will be discussed and evaluated. Finally, paper focuses on contribution of liberatory scholars and in particular Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa in addressing promising components of critical thinking such as relation, communication, and imagination. This paper aims to raise awareness regarding liberation scholarship as a resource for researchers and practitioners in engineering education.

Bringing visibility to transversal skills in engineering education: towards an organizing framework

“…Further, the interactions among the various skills, for example the overlap between ethical reasoning and thinking skills, demonstrate how interventions focusing on one may influence another. Treating imagination as the primary constituent of thinking skills and ethical reasoning, for instance, and providing opportunities for students to practice at imagining (Jalali and Matheis, 2017;Jalali et al 2022) may work to simultaneously develop both. Put differently, the overlap between the themes can also be considered a guide for designing classroom interventions.…”

Ethics Instruction and the Role of Liberatory Praxis and Theory

“…We shall first elaborate on the major elements of the liberatory struggle, relationships, understanding, transformation, and solidarity [22] of oppression, the oppressed may discover who they really are. However, the oppressed need to overcome the internalized state of oppression.…”

Critical Technology Integration in Pursuit of a Liberatory Engineering Education

“…8 Jalali and Matheis argue that liberatory praxis and theory are directly connected in the process of fostering critical thinking in engineering education. 10 Engineering educators can also use liberatory praxis and theory to design an educational experience that is liberating. A critical lens must be used to evaluate the tradeoffs and synergies of technology integration in the K-12 and higher education engineering classrooms.…”