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

• In Event: Publication mentoring workshop session
  In Special Session: International & Intercultural Education - Group B

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 expansion transnationally in the 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. A reconceptualized critical thinking would be more inclusive of different forms of criticality, befitting of the global age, and beneficial to students of diverse backgrounds. 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 explains 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 case study that brings students’ voices from the margin to the central debate and 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?

To address these 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 educational environment that fosters critical thinking and the role it plays in sustaining a democratic society. This interdisciplinary framework is designed 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.
The bulk of 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 is diverse in terms of academic status, major, prior educational experiences abroad, immigration status, among others.

Having collected data over the past academic year, I am currently in my last stage of doctoral training and am analyzing data via Dedoose. My preliminary findings echo the urgent calls by scholars to reconceptualize critical thinking as it becomes a far-reaching educational concept globally. Moreover, my data analysis reveals paradoxes that may be significant for understanding not only the learning and teaching of critical thinking per se but also a host of larger issues about our perception and future direction of democracy, higher education, and globalization.

In short, an in-depth examination of critical thinking from a cross-cultural perspective, through the voices of transnational Chinese students, is to bring knowledge from the periphery to the central debate and to forge an intercultural remapping of critical thinking for a global era. I would very much appreciate an opportunity to share in detail my study and findings at the 2019 CIES publication workshop.

Author

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