Representation of Critical Education in Humanities (an Ethnographic Study)

The development of critical thinking by faculty members is a necessity in the higher education system. It takes on an added importance in Humanities. The purpose of the present study is to represent the approaches of critical education in humanities. To this end the present study treats the representation of critical thinking by the university professors, ways of challenging students, and teaching and assessment methods in classes. The present research has adopted a qualitative and ethnographic approach. Semi-structured interview has been used to collect data. The sample of the research consists of 9 members of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of University of Kurdistan which have been chosen using sampling method with the highest power (investigating cases which the intended phenomena are present in them to a large extent). The data … theoretical coding. To determine the codes and major topics the qualitative data analysis computer software package, NVivo 10 was used. The data have been analyzed using a comparative analysis method. To determine the validity of the research three methods have been used: credibility, transferability and confirmability.The findings of the research showed that the faculty members having a clear understanding of critical thinking sought responsibly to develop critical thinking among the students through challenging the students, active teaching methods, giving special importance to the class processes and also using open-ended questions with analytical responses.Therefore, it can be concluded that the faculty members having a correct understanding of critical thinking and the way it should be taught can develop it among the students resulting in great success.