Pre-service teacher education lecturers’ constructions and enactment of critical thinking.

Abstract

Critical thinking (CT) is mandated in South African education policy as essential for educational transformation, yet its implementation relies heavily on individual practitioners. While extensive literature explores CT's theoretical value, limited empirical research examines how lecturers actually understand and practice CT in their everyday teaching contexts. This study investigated how Pre-Service Teacher Education (P-STE) lecturers construct and enact critical thinking, and the factors influencing their practices. The research employed an interpretive single-site case study design at one independent higher education institution in eThekwini, South Africa. Six P-STE lecturers participated through lecture observations and semi-structured interviews. The study used currere as a theoretical lens to examine curriculum and policy documents mandating CT, while the Forcefield Model of Teacher Development helped identify influences on lecturers' CT constructions. Thematic analysis was applied to generate findings addressing the research questions. Key findings revealed that education policy mandated CT implementation without providing conceptual clarity about what CT entails or how it should be taught and learned. This gap left lecturers with limited practical guidance for implementation. Lecturers' understanding of CT was primarily shaped by their disciplinary backgrounds, which drew heavily from Western university traditions encountered during their own undergraduate education. Their CT enactments reflected these experiential encounters, with additional minor influences from home environments and high school experiences. The study concluded that in South Africa's complex educational context, lecturers draw from diverse sources, including disciplinary knowledge, higher education experiences, schooling, and personal backgrounds, to create their own approaches to CT. These self-constructed assemblages reflect lecturers' ingenuity in addressing the absence of clear implementation guidance. The research recommends that CT development would benefit from more deliberate national and institutional support that clarifies not only CT's theoretical importance but also provides practical implementation strategies, thereby better supporting P-STE lecturers in fostering critical thinking skills.