TY - JOUR
T1 - Getting critical about critique in higher education: provocations on the meanings of ‘critical perspectives’
AU - Luckett, Kathy
AU - Bhatt, Ibrar
PY - 2024/4/14
Y1 - 2024/4/14
N2 - This Point of Departure ‘kicks off’ a process that we hope will elicit submissions for a Special Issue to mark the 30th anniversary of Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. The theme of the issue will be to debate the meanings of the concept ‘critical’ or ‘criticality’ or ‘critique’ and its associated uses such as ‘critical perspectives’, ‘critical thinking’ and ‘critical literacy’ in higher education and the implications of these debates for teaching. We will invite contributors to interrogate the definitions, uses and import of these terms, particularly in the context of conducting and writing about research on teaching theory and practice in higher education for this journal. Despite its pervasiveness in higher education discourse, the meanings of the concept remain vague and implicit, such that they can function as mechanisms of exclusion and domination, for example when assessing students (Stables Citation2003; Gravett, Taylor, and Fairchild Citation2024; Taylor et al. Citation2023) or reviewing submissions for publication (Bozalek and Romano Citation2023; Taylor et al. Citation2023). More specifically, we hope to clarify for ourselves and for potential authors how we might meaningfully rethink and redescribe the concept in contemporary higher education contexts that are shifting and unstable – at many levels – existential, institutional, disciplinary, epistemological, technological, cultural and planetary. As editors and reviewers of the journal, we also hope that contributions to the Special Issue will challenge not only how we teach, but also how we frame and manage the journal and thus open up, enrich, and diversify our coverage of research on teaching that adopts a critical perspective.
AB - This Point of Departure ‘kicks off’ a process that we hope will elicit submissions for a Special Issue to mark the 30th anniversary of Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. The theme of the issue will be to debate the meanings of the concept ‘critical’ or ‘criticality’ or ‘critique’ and its associated uses such as ‘critical perspectives’, ‘critical thinking’ and ‘critical literacy’ in higher education and the implications of these debates for teaching. We will invite contributors to interrogate the definitions, uses and import of these terms, particularly in the context of conducting and writing about research on teaching theory and practice in higher education for this journal. Despite its pervasiveness in higher education discourse, the meanings of the concept remain vague and implicit, such that they can function as mechanisms of exclusion and domination, for example when assessing students (Stables Citation2003; Gravett, Taylor, and Fairchild Citation2024; Taylor et al. Citation2023) or reviewing submissions for publication (Bozalek and Romano Citation2023; Taylor et al. Citation2023). More specifically, we hope to clarify for ourselves and for potential authors how we might meaningfully rethink and redescribe the concept in contemporary higher education contexts that are shifting and unstable – at many levels – existential, institutional, disciplinary, epistemological, technological, cultural and planetary. As editors and reviewers of the journal, we also hope that contributions to the Special Issue will challenge not only how we teach, but also how we frame and manage the journal and thus open up, enrich, and diversify our coverage of research on teaching that adopts a critical perspective.
U2 - 10.1080/13562517.2024.2335223
DO - 10.1080/13562517.2024.2335223
M3 - Article
SN - 1470-1294
JO - Teaching in Higher Education
JF - Teaching in Higher Education
ER -