The “Critical” in Critical Theories

This entry goes into a lot of theory to lay the groundwork to understand what is happening in education and society today. If you do not want to wade through the theory, the diagram above shows the linkages between various “critical” theories. The key takeaways are:

• These doctrines are rooted in Marxism.
• The “critical” in these theories does not have the same connotative meaning as the “critical” in critical thinking. Rather, they are linked to “deprecate” and “urgent”, with some aspects of “crucial”.
• Because of their Marxist roots, they are utopian in nature and feel and look humanistic and kind.
• While advocates sell CRT and Critical Pedagogy as fact, they are unproven theories.

The dates for each theory are based on the release of a key document that discusses the theory. They are not precise. For example, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has roots in the 1960s and 1970s and Critical Pedagogy started in Brasil and did not appear strongly in the US until later.

The pentagon labeled “Critical” has five connotative meanings.

• Severe Consequence. If the organization does not take action, the danger could threaten the organization’s mission or even existence.
• Evaluative. Assess the situation, determine courses of action, and select one to implement.
• Crucial. The situation is important to organizational success.
• Urgent. The organization must take action immediately to either promote success or stave off failure.
• Deprecate. Find fault with an organization, idea, or concept. Attack the organization, idea, or concept based upon the identified fault.

Because of their Utopian roots, these theories attack the existing order to show that it is harsh, discriminatory, and harmful. Many find this outer layer of truth attractive and accept the theory and protest and/or attack the existing order. Because these theories already hold the truth according to their advocates and adherents, there is no need for critical thinking. Therefore, these theories operate on the left side of the model above.

Theory Analysis

Other blog entries cover cultural hegemony, CRT (here, here, here), so this blog focuses on Critical Theory, World Systems theory, Critical Social Theory and Critical Social Theory, and Critical Pedagogy/Education. I will primarily quote from authoritative sources to reduce editorializing and potential bias.

Critical Theory

The Standford Encyclopedia discusses Critical Theory. It opens with:

“Critical Theory” in the narrow sense designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School. According to these theorists, a “critical” theory may be distinguished from a “traditional” theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human “emancipation from slavery”, acts as a “liberating … influence”, and works “to create a world which satisfies the needs and powers of” human beings (Horkheimer 1972b [1992, 246]). Because such theories aim to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings, many “critical theories” in the broader sense have been developed. They have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimensions of the domination of human beings in modern societies. In both the broad and the narrow senses, however, a critical theory provides the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms.

World Systems Theory

Carlos A. Martínez-Vela, in a MIT paper, wrote:

World-system theory is a macrosociological perspective that seeks to explain the dynamics of the “capitalist world economy” as a “total social system”. Its first major articulation, and classic example of this approach, is associated with Immanuel Wallerstein, who in 1974 published what is regarded as a seminal paper, The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis. In 1976 Wallerstein published The Modern World System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. This is Wallerstein’s landmark contribution to sociological and historical thought and it triggered numerous reactions, and inspired many others to build on his ideas. Because of the main concepts and intellectual building blocks of world-system theory –which will be outlined later–, it has had a major impact and perhaps its more warm reception in the developing world.

Christopher Chase-Dunn and Marilyn Grell-Brisk in Oxford Bibliograhies wrote:

Karl Marx’s theory of the contradictions of capitalist development (Marx 1967) was expanded by the world-system theorists to a global scale. While Marx focused mainly on capitalist industrialization and class relations within core European states, the world-system perspective developed in Wallerstein 1974 sees the core/periphery hierarchy as a central structure for capitalism. What had occurred in the non-core was peripheral capitalism and it was necessary for the reproduction and deepening of capitalism. Marx had defined capitalism commodity production based on wage labor. The world-system theorists have argued that modern slavery and serfdom constituted forms of peripheral capitalism. The Marxist view of modern societies in constant tension between the owners of the means of production (capitalists) and labor (workers/proletariat) resulting in class conflict is expanded to the whole system, except that labor relations in the non-core involve a greater degree of coercion. World-system analysis constitutes a significant modification of traditional Marxist principles that includes the non-core as a systemic aspect of capitalism. Lenin’ s theory of imperialism as a stage of capitalism was rewritten to emphasize the importance of imperialism as a systemic feature of capitalist development since the emergence of the modern core/periphery hierarchy in the 16th century (Lenin 1939, originally published in 1916). Bukharin’s discourse on imperialism on capitalism and world-economy marked an important precursor that focused on flows of value from peripheral/colonial countries to the core capitalist countries (Bukharin 1972, originally published in 1929).

Critical Social Theory

John P. Scott, in Critical social theory: an introduction and critique, notes that it is based on Marxism and the founder, Jürgen Habermas did not “solved the problems of a ‘realist’ approach to sociology and that his synthesis is incomplete.”

Robyn Benson, … Anita Devos, in Managing and Supporting Student Diversity in Higher Education, 2013 wrote:

Critical social theory is of particular importance because of its focus on social justice and empowerment. Emanating from the Marxist- oriented Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt and New York, this theory places social justice and the relationship of knowledge, power, and ideology at the centre of the learning experience (Habermas, 1971). Brazilian adult educator Paulo Freire was an important exponent of critical social theory in education, rejecting the ‘banking concept of education’ (Freire, 1972: 46) where the taught are seen as dehumanised objects, and power and knowledge are in the hands of the teacher.

Critical Systems Theory

Sunnie Lee Watson and William R. Watson in a well-research chapter entitled Critical Systems Theory for Qualitative Research Methodology make several key points about Critical Systems Theory. I will quote them as I think they are important to understand.

“Critical systems theory (CST) is derived from the ideas of systems theory and critical social theory”

“However, while applying systems thinking in human systems in the early1980s, a number of systems-thinking researchers felt the need for systems theory to evolve towards a more critical, socially aware approach to systems thinking and practice (Mingers, 1980; Jackson, 1982). These scholars developed their critical approach to systems thinking based on the epistemological and ontological views of Habermas (Flood & Jackson, 1991; Jackson,1991a, 1991b), and today CST is defined by its commitment to three core values and commitments: critique, emancipation, and pluralism (Schecter,1991; Flood & Jackson, 1991).”

• “A commitment to the critique of the underlying ethics and a questioning of understanding, particularly in regards to normative content and the value of rigor, is necessary in order to ensure that traditional approaches do not import existing “baggage” into the research study.”
• “A second key commitment of CST is the commitment to emancipation, which includes the notions of freeing of the system and system’s individuals from any kind oppression that disables them to critique and fully develop their potential. It also includes the idea of freeing systems researchers and practitioners from the control of research methodologies in power. This directs the researcher to recognize the barriers to human emancipation: the unequal power relations and the conceptual traps, which exist and can be easily overlooked.”
• “The final core value of CST is pluralism, focusing on the notion that re-searchers should employ a creative design of methods by appreciating all methods and using multiple methods, grounded in appropriate theory. “

Critical Pedagogy/Education

The Evolving Education site tells us: “One of the main founders of this practice is Paulo Freire, who defined “education can not be neutral, it is either an instrument of liberation or an instrument of domestication“. Education must liberate the individual through a conscious, understood and analyzed act.”

Note this is the same Paulo Friere discussed about in Critical Social Theory.

The Sociology of Education defines Critical Pedagogy as:

Critical pedagogy challenges both students and teachers to channel their experiences of oppression into educating and empowering marginalized peoples. Critical pedagogues approach education as a process of social, cultural, political, and individual transformation, where social equity can be nourished or social inequity perpetuated. According to critical pedagogues, notions defining rational classification of people into categories that diminish their social affect and importance keep them oppressed. Oppressed peoples thus require not only awareness of inequities they suffer but also an understanding of ways that oppressive social mechanisms and beliefs endure, and of resistance strategies. Reflection on one’s own experiences of oppression and the feelings of frustration, shame, guilt, and rage that accompany those experiences help shape practices of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogues redirect these feelings that can incite violent acts, submission, and/or ongoing repression into dynamic dialogue that defines literacy in terms of participatory citizenship.

Lilia I. Bartolomé, in Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education: Radicalizing Prospective Teachers, hosted on a government site, wrote:

Gaining access to and actively creating methods and materials for the classroom is certainly an important step towards effective teaching. However, this practical focus far too often occurs without examining teachers’ own assumptions, values, and beliefs and how this ideological posture informs, often unconsciously, their perceptions and actions when working with linguistic-minority and other politically, socially, and economically subordinated students.

Theory Assessment

As the citations above show, these theories are all nested and entwined together. They are all rooted in Marxism and are all designed to challenge and attack the established western civilization and social order. Their advocates were all either known/admitted Marxists or social agitators advocating massive social change.

I suspect many of the teachers teaching CRT, the 1619 Project, and advocating for Black Lives Matter are not aware of this background. Most are good-hearted people that want to make a change for they see as a better, more just and fair society. To them, however, I ask, how can you blame an innocent six-year-old white boy for what you see as historical injustice? How does making him feel worthless help society?

To really help make society better, the education institution needs to focus on true critical thinking and look for solutions that improve a demonstrably successful system rather than indoctrinating students with unproven theories that upend the system and replace it with socialism.