Rūta Petkutė

Are Contemporary Universities Venues for Critical Thought? Conceptual and Empirical Insights

Are Contemporary Universities Venues for Critical Thought?

Conceptual and Empirical Insights

Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Abstract

Critical thinking historically has been recognised as a foundation of intellectual inquiry in the European continental academic tradition since Kant. Underpinned by the principle of academic freedom, the pursuit of critical thinking has accompanied the quest for truth and has been inseparable from the broader democratic project. In contemporary European higher education, critical thinking re-emerges as a generic competence, reflecting a ‘know-how’ approach that highlights the practical use of knowledge and skills in real-world and work contexts. The presentation focuses on exploring the historical and contemporary European approaches to critical thinking in the context of university education and discerning their similarities and differences. Furthermore, it examines the challenges of fostering critical thinking within contemporary Lithuanian universities. The presentation offers a conceptual analysis of universities’ historical role in nurturing critical thought and an overview of contemporary European higher education policy documents. Moreover, it draws on the findings of the broader research project, which explored Lithuanian academics’ responses to European higher education reforms, to draw valuable insights into the current state of critical thinking in Lithuanian universities.

Keywords: Critical thought, universities, European continental academic tradition, European higher education policy, generic competences, Lithuanian academics’ perspectives.

Biography

Dr. Rūta Petkutė is a researcher at Kaunas University of Technology, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities. Her work combines the disciplines of higher education policy, critical university studies, sociology of knowledge, and the history of ideas. She also has expertise in life narrative research methodology, which she uses to gain an in-depth and contextual understanding of individual experiences of educational change. Email: .