Gordon Dehler

1. Gordon Dehler Integrative Learning and Criticality: Enhancing Complicated Understanding

3. Agenda: Guiding Questions 1] Is there a difference between �critical thinking� and �thinking critically�? If so, what�s a working definition of each? 2] What do we, as educators, hope to achieve by encouraging students to think critically? 3] What strategies, in the classroom and across the curriculum, encourage thinking, reflecting and acting critically? 4] What is the role of critical theory in promoting critical thought? 5] What are some examples to prime thinking?

4. Is �Critical Thinking� Different from �Thinking Critically�? > Critical Thinking: - A disciplined approach to problem solving [Reynolds 1999] - Analytical thinking, problem solving, reflective judgment, applied logic, practical reasoning [Bok 2006] > Thinking Critically: - challenging ideology, congesting hegemony, unmasking power, overcoming alienation, learning liberation, reclaiming reason [Brookfield 2005]

5. Shared Pedagogical Objectives [Gordon and Ann] > Promote Complicated Understanding - Increase the variety of ways [the world] can be understood Develop an understanding by integrating multiple perspectives [rational/political/cultural-symbolic] > Pedagogical Assumptions re Organizations Democratization: flat/networked/heterarchical Multiplicity of voices: diversity in all forms - Emancipation: student as agent of social change

6. Some [Quick!] Examples:Thinking/Reflecting/Acting Critically > Classroom Topic: Walmart ! - Thinking critically [Dehler, Welsh & Lewis 2001] > Action Research course - Reflecting critically [Dehler 2006] > Honors course on globalization - Acting critically [Dehler 2009] > Cross-disciplinary Studio course - Critical pedagogy [Welsh, Dehler & Murray 2007]

7. Wal-Mart and Teaching Points: Critical Views and Problematics Professor as agent of business [?] Pedagogical assumptions clear: emancipatory aims Obscure power relations Legitimate power of management Reinforce extant power relations to perpetuate status quo Conflate �rationality� w/ value preferences Privilege capital over labor [a value, not �fact�] Attach labels to alternative views Marginalize dissenting views as �biased� Trivialize attempts to challenge taken-for-granteds Deny existence of points of tension

8. Course Examples: [graduate] Action Research Capstone - Problem ? knowledge/theory - Explicit critical theoretic component [Undergraduate] Honors Course - Multi-disciplinary - Reflect critically on learning - Critical action: Social change initiative Key: Course Design [build in �critical�]

9. Learning Tasks of Critical Theory*A Studio Example > Cross-disciplinary project collaboration - Industrial design, business, engineering > Three Challenges: 1] Unmasking power: disparate power as natural 2] Learning liberation: new forms of organization 3] Reclaiming reason: cope with messy situations *[Brookfield 2005] The Power of Critical Theory.

10. Some Key Questions > What pedagogical strategies do/could you use to teach critical thought in your class? > If thinking critically was the goal of a curriculum, as a whole, what principles could be established that all faculty could adhere to [e.g., no multiple choice exams]? > How would educators know if they were fostering critical thought?

11. Redux: Learning Tasks of Critical Theory > Challenging ideology: �common sense� > Contesting hegemony: maintain political control > Unmasking power: disparate power as natural [somebody has to be in charge] > Overcoming alienation: constraints on freedom > Learning liberation: new forms of organization > Reclaiming reason: coping with messy situations > Practicing democracy: tyranny of the majority

12. Wrapping Up: What We�ve Done > Working definitions of critical thinking vs. thinking critically > Goal of fostering critical thought in a variety of contexts [not just business schools/our domain] > Strategies for fostering critical thought in the class and across the curriculum > Role of critical theory in facilitating critical thought

13. Selected References Barnett, R. (1997) Higher Education: A Critical Business. Buckingham, UK: Open U. Press. Bok, D. (2006) Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Brookfield, S.D. (1995) The skillful teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Brookfield, S.D. (2005) The power of critical theory: Liberating adult learning and teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Dehler, G.E. (2009) Prospects and possibilities of critical management education: Critical beings and a pedagogy of critical action. Management Learning, 40(1): 31-49. Dehler, G.E. (1996) Management education as intentional learning: A knowledge transforming approach to written communication. Journal of Management Education, 20(2): 221-235. Dehler, G.E., Welsh, M.A. & Lewis, M.W. (2001) Critical pedagogy in the 'new paradigm': Raising complicated understanding in management learning. Management Learning, 32(4): 493-511. Freire, P. (1970/1993) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Martin, R. (2007) How successful business leaders think. Harvard Business Review, June. Reynolds, M. (1997) �Towards a Critical Management Pedagogy�, in J. Burgoyne and M. Reynolds (eds) Management Learning: Integrating Perspectives in Theory and Practice, pp. 312-28. London: Sage. Shor, I. (2000) �Introduction: (Why) Education is Politics�, in I. Shor and C. Pari (eds) Education is Political: Critical Teaching across Differences, Postsecondary, pp. 1-15. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. Shor, I. (1996) When Students Have Power: Negotiating Authority in a Critical Pedagogy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sotto, E. (1994) When teaching becomes learning: A theory and practice of teaching. London: Continuum. Welsh, M.A., Dehler, G.E. & Murray, D.L. (2007) Learning about and through experience: Understanding the power of experience-based education. In M. Reynolds & R. Vince (Eds.), Handbook of experiential learning & management education, pp. 53-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Welsh, M. A. and Dehler, G. E. (2004) �P(l)aying Attention: Communities of Practice and Organized Reflection�, in M. Reynolds and R. Vince (eds) Organizing Reflection, pp. 15-29. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. Welsh, M. A. and Murray, D. (2003) �The Ecocollaborative:�Using Critical Pedagogy to Teach Sustainability�, Journal of Management Education 27: 220-235.