Towards a Pluralistic and Cross-Cultural Understanding of Critical Thinking: Moving Beyond Anglo-Centric Models in Global Higher Education

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Abstract

Critical thinking is often linked to international students through deficit-based assumptions about their ability to develop it.This study challenges such assumptions by adopting a translation lens to examine how language mediates students’ conceptualisations of critical thinking. Drawing on a longitudinal, multimodal interview study with 19 Chinese international postgraduate students enrolled in a one-year MA programme in the UK, I trace how their understandings of critical thinking evolved over time. Our findings reveal that students interpreted critical thinking through eight distinct Chinese translations, which contributed to conceptual ambiguity and tension. We argue that critical thinking is a linguistically and culturally constructed concept. The paper provides practical implications for teaching critical thinking in intercultural higher education contexts.

Author

• Luman Zhou, University of Manchester