Practicing critical thinking (CT) in the social sciences

One stream that is becoming significant within various teaching critical thinking initiatives in higher education is that of introducing professionals of various disciplines to the history of knowledge and the various paradigms deriving from it. These paradigms - phenomenology, social constructionism, critical social theory, post-modernism, feminism and post-structuralism - are, among others, very important paradigms of knowledge that have contributed to contemporary counter-arguments against some of the most recalcitrant and dominant views of the positivist paradigm, which is taken as a given by many disciplines when they come to define and represent what knowledge is. In order to introduce the SYLFF fellows at Jadavpur University to this discussion on critical thinking, a workshop/lecture addressing how to practise critical thinking in the social sciences was delivered on the 18th of April, 2012. The session, which was very well attended, inspired some very enthusiastic and fervent dialogue which raised some highly debatable arguments and issues for both the audience and the presenter