Critical Thinking, Selfhood, and Democratization in the Age of Globalization: A Case Study of Transnational Chinese Undergraduates in the U.S.

• In Event: Student mobility

Proposal

Teaching students how to think critically constitutes an essential goal in American higher education because of its presumed role in advancing knowledge, entrepreneurship, and democracy (Arum & Rokas, 2011; DeAngelo et al., 2009). Yet despite decades of debates and implementations, critical thinking remains a contested concept, both in terms of what it is and how to teach it (Noddings, 2012). Moreover, with the rise of critical scholarship and its global expansion in recent decades, newer questions emerge on whether critical thinking as conceptualized and taught has been sufficiently critical of its own embedded cultural, class, and gender assumptions (Biesta & Stam, 2001), and whether its hegemonic influence as a global educational concept amount to a form of “conceptual colonization” or “neoliberal conceit” (Kutieleh & Egege, 2004; O’Sullivan & Guo, 2010).

The common consensus among both domestic and transnational scholars is not to discard this way of thinking but rather to revamp it both theoretically and pedagogically. The obvious question is how? But a question more fundamental perhaps is who—that is, whose voice(s) should be considered in this revamping process?

To date, input from the students and their voices is largely missing. A systemic understanding is also lacking of these very learners that this educational concept is meant to serve (Manalo, et al., 2015); this is true of both domestic and international students. For example, in spite of a growing interest in international Chinese students’ acquisition of critical thinking, there is a dearth of in-depth empirical studies and holistic frameworks that capture these students’ actual learning experiences and explain how various factors, e.g. familial background, prior education and current learning environment, shape their particular responses (Tian & Low, 2011).

My research addresses these knowledge gaps by examining transnational Chinese undergraduates’ experiences as a source of knowledge indispensable for the remapping of critical thinking for the 21st century. I do so by asking the following questions: First, how do transnational Chinese students experience and perceive critical thinking in American higher education, and what factors have shaped their particular perspectives? Second, how might these students’ cross-cultural learning experiences contribute to an intercultural understanding and remapping of critical thinking as an increasingly global educational concept?

In this proposed presentation, I will focus on sharing my theoretical framework, research methodology, and empirical data collected from my dissertation research framed above.

To address my research questions, I use a hybrid theoretical framework drawn from theories in sociology, psychology, and philosophy. More specifically, I lean on Giddens & Beck’s “reflexive modernity” for unveiling structural forces that shape transnational Chinese undergraduates’ educational aspirations and experiences; Baxter Magolda’s “self-authorship” for examining more closely the actual learning and development process vis-a-vis critical thinking for Chinese students abroad; Dewey’s philosophy of education for understanding the role of critical thinking in sustaining democracy and the educational environment that fosters this quintessentially democratic way of thinking and being. The purpose of this interdisciplinary framework is to enable an in-depth and holistic analysis of the macro-level economic and political forces as well as micro-level intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics that shape these students’ acquisition and practice of critical thinking. Moreover, since each of the theories adopted in this theoretical framework highlights a closely interconnected relation among knowledge, society, and the self, they corroboratively provide a larger framing from which this case study of transnational Chinese students may shed light on the nature and function of critical thinking in the global age.

The bulk of my data collected for this qualitative case study entails one online survey and two round of semi-structured interviews of 35 transnational Chinese undergraduate students from a large research university on the west coast of the United States. Participants were recruited primarily through a mass email facilitated by the university’s registrar to all undergraduate students with a Chinese passport. The resulting pool of participants from mainland China is diverse in terms of academic status, major, prior educational experiences abroad, immigration status, among others. Moreover, these variations create a more nuanced understanding on what shape these students’ cross-cultural educational experiences and perspectives on critical thinking.

My preliminary analysis of the research data thus far indicates that critical thinking has indeed become a rather pervasive, global educational concept, familiar to a various extent to high school students in China who are prepared to obtain their tertiary degrees abroad. Although participants’ conceptual understandings of critical thinking vary—reflecting the multitude of existing views that ranges from logical reasoning to creative thinking, almost all found critical thinking to be highly important. While such importance is generally felt by the participants in a positive way (e.g. fostering students’ independence, curiosity, and confidence), some have described an accompanying sense of uncertainty, confusion, and crisis around identity and decision-making. Moreover, critical thinking is generally considered important by these students not only for academic success but also for their personal development and interpersonal relationships. Explicit mention of critical thinking vis-à-vis democratic engagement and self-examination of one’s basic values and assumptions, however, is rare.

These preliminary findings shed light on numerous aspects of the domestic and transnational debates on critical thinking. For example, on the perennial question of whether critical thinking is universal or culturally specific, students’ perspectives show that critical thinking is both universal, i.e. innate to human nature, and culturally specific, i.e. emphasized more so in American education more than in Chinese. This nuanced view may help to unpack the ethical question on teaching critical thinking as a global concept, and it may further necessitate an intercultural remapping of critical thinking as such.

In summary, findings from my dissertation research provide an in-depth portrayal of the diverse and changing experiences of transnational Chinese students—the largest student group of foreign origins around the world today. Moreover, reflecting upon their cross-cultural perspectives may facilitate a better reconceptualization of critical thinking that more inclusive of different forms of criticality, befitting of the global age, and beneficial to students of diverse backgrounds.

Author

• Hui Xie, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)