Critical Theory, Thought, and Practice: Why Critical Theory should be taught in Education.

Author: Nathan Sawmiller Date: May 3, 2025

Introduction

Attention Getter: Imagine being a passenger in a car all your life; you may give directions that get you to where you want to go, but the places you find yourself in and the very vehicle you are in are never questioned.
Background/Context: Getting around life often requires Critical Thinking. We use modes of thinking to look out for how others use emotions; how they might use their position as credibility; and, how they might use other facts to support their view, all for you to know, critically, that they are right. Very well, we know for sure that in this moment truth has been apprehended: but what is around us? And we find ourselves to have seemingly slept walk into that moment to find some truth there; but if truth is dependent on context, who’s & what’s truth have we found? Critical Theory, a political school of thought that analyses social structures from mulitple perspectives and their impact on individuals & others, awakens us to what is around us, showing why we were there in that moment, how we got there, and why we might even have gotten to that conclusion in the first place independently of logic analysis like rhetoric.
Thesis Statement: From my point of view, it seems that we are missing some important tools. This is why I believe Critical Theory should be taught along with critical thinking in education.
Preview of Main Points:
Visual Aids: (Mention any visual aids you will use)

Main Point 1: What it teaches you.

As expressed earlier, the teachings of critical theory can help learners analyze and find why they even argue for a given topic in the first place.

Supporting Argument 1: According to Horkeimer, a central goal of Critical Theory is to analyze how domination of idenitiy like viewpoints on topics is achieved and maintained within groups ([@Bensimon_MartinezAleman_Pusser_2015, p. 7]). To find where points of domination are contested, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a method of seeing group viewpoints (ideologies) in material like books or articles, can be used to reveal the ideological foundations of the discourse surrounding the topic or arugement to identify large groups in society which have great influence over individuals & institutions and their own relations to other large groups (and this is Power).
Supporting Argument 2: Discourse between groups have three ways of seeing; seeing it and groups behind it; the shaping of the discourse and solutions; and if just some new solution could happen. This means power can be seen to not only operate through observable conflicts, but can also by shaping the context of debate, making even possible alternatives of topics inconceivable ([@Bensimon_MartinezAleman_Pusser_2015, p. 35]).
– Summary of Main Point 1: Critical Theory & Critical Discourse Analysis allows us to find where different structures of power are competing for greater influence from the view of their discourse between ideological foundations. When debate is considered from this view, we can see that the very context of the debate itself is an act of power, canceling out any other topics which could find such structures.
– Preview of Main Point 2: So what does this knowledge do for you? What does it enable you to do that Critical Thinking doesn’t provide you?

Main Point 2: What it does for you

Critical Theory cultivates a deeper and more socially conscious form of Critical Thinking that goes beyond evaluating surface-level arguments.

– Supporting Argument 1: While Critical Thinking focuses on logical reasoning & arguments, Critical Theory & CDA encourages the applicator to examine underlying assumptions in the argument, their ideological influences, and the dynamics of power. This helps to give the reasoner a view of their footing.
– Supporting Argument 2: In Education specifically with adult learners, Brookfield argues that Critical Theory helps adult learners to overcome ideological & large group’s power conditioning, enabling them to disengage from quick assumptions and gain more conscious control over their lives ([@Brookfield2005PowerCriticalTheory, p. 13]).
– Supporting Argument 3: From this new footing & control over yourself, you can now see methods of propaganda which serves to reinforce influences of these power structures where they are often based, as Renee Hobbs et all finds in the ABC’s of Propaganda Analysis, on identity identifiers like a person’s social inheritance of political affliction ([@Hobbs2014TeachingPropaganda, p. 63]).
– Summary of Main Point 2: From new or to older learners, supplementing Critical Thinking with Critical Theory gives the learner the ability to include analysis of power-related influences into the overall point of argument and the reasoning & conclusions which might follow. In addition, it enables the learner to spot signs of propaganda not only through the argumental structure of it, but also the identity reinforcement.
– Preview of Main Point 3: This extends the abilities of the individual in their use of thinking, but how does that look for us all?

Main Point 3: What it does for us all.

Critical Theory has an inherent emancipatory aim, seeking to empower individuals and foster social transformation towards a more just and democratic society.

– Argument 1: A democratic society needs a population which can not only be able to use critical skills to understand and find faults with the vast different ideals but also to spot why such a topic is taken up to begin with. This ability of such a population increases the strength of the democracy, helping to overcome power structure’s ideological influence & it’s propaganda to discuss topics which might be outside their norm, helping to better represent the people at large.
– Argument 2: The population is empowered individually; they are able to spot the utilization of power to create & control discourse. Social & democratic engagement can move past individual arguments and to see why such observable conflict is taking place and how it’s context came about which makes alternative resolution not possible.
– Summary of Main Point 3: Parallelization of Critical Thinking and the teachings of Critical Theory drives the focus away from who’s right when, but in what time & place. It becomes a set of models of thinking to navigate social & political life, much like Rhetoric is for arguments.

Conclusion

– Restate Importance: The importance of Critical Thinking in helping one’s life cannot be done in a social vacuum: our very way of functioning government for all depends on it.
– Restate Thesis: Education of Critical Theory along side Critical Thinking fills in this social vacuum, helping to included the influences that various structures within life can have on our arguments of interest, feasibility, and even truth of.
– Concluding Remark: When you find yourself start to question the moment, it’s place & vehicle, remember that whatever conclusion you reach might not be your own as the topic at hand might not even be yours to begin with.