Sociology of Critical Thinking

A field that studies critical thinking as a socially situated practice, not a purely cognitive skill. It examines how critical thinking is taught, valued, and performed in different social contexts (schools, workplaces, online debates). It asks: who is encouraged to think critically about what? Whose critical questioning is seen as legitimate, and whose is dismissed as “obsessive” or “conspiratorial”? It studies how social hierarchies (class, race, gender) shape access to critical thinking education and how institutions reward or punish skeptical inquiry. The sociology of critical thinking reveals that “critical thinking” is often a gatekeeping concept.

Example: “The sociology of critical thinking showed that working-class students were taught to follow procedures, while elite students were taught to question authority—so ‘critical thinking’ was distributed unevenly, serving to reproduce class structure.”

Sociology of Critical Thinking by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 1, 2026