Verification of intellectual equality : a case study of Chinese modes of critical thinking

Abstract

The key issue investigated through this research concerns the construction of international People's Republic of China (PRC) students as uncritical and unable to engage in thinking and critical theoretical analysis. However, the research focus is not to transmit the technique of critical thinking to allegedly deficit Chinese critical thinkers, specifically postgraduate students in this study, but to make use of the Chinese modes of critical thinking that are already available to them in their learning and research in Australian universities. The research reported in this thesis is a case study. Through analysing a popular textual artefact, and collecting interview data, this research project specifically addressed the research question of: how might the presupposition of intellectual equality with regard to postgraduate students from China studying in Anglophone universities be verified through Chinese modes of critical thinking? To do so, the study explores particular modes of critical thinking presented in Chinese popular culture, as well as through Chinese postgraduate students' perspectives and experiences. Consideration is given to the mechanisms that might constrain and extend students' capabilities for engaging Chinese modes of critical thinking in an Anglophone educational context. The aim of this research is to explore Chinese modes of critical thinking, as ways to test and verify pedagogical alternatives that are more likely to manifest and expand Chinese international students' critical capabilities, in order to further push the boundaries that are determined by uniformization of Western Anglophone modes of critical thinking associated with English monolingual paradigm. The innovation of this thesis lies in progressing the debates around a shift away from a deficit view of 'uncritical Chinese students' from a monolingual shaped mindset, towards more holistic, postmonolingual pedagogies that are underpinned by an understanding of the intellectual equality of all students. The thesis per se is an example of theorising Chinese modes of critical thinking in English-only Anglophone higher education and academic research.

Date of Award	2016
Original language	English