The Empowerment of critical thinking in education and society to face pandemic times

Abstract

This article discusses the need to promote critical thinking in education, which could help to better face uncertain times such as those produced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the official indications of education indicate the development of critical thinking, such development has not become a reality in everyday educational practices, partly due to a lack of clear guidelines on how to carry out this task and partly due to the ambiguities that it involves the treatment of critical thinking. Official education has faced various logistical, methodological, and ideological problems. In addition, during this time of the pandemic, society has seen how schools were closed to avoid or prevent infections, which led to trying to continue education through the electronic means available to teachers and students, which meant, among other things, a distancing and exclusion of some, especially those most disadvantaged. In these pandemic times, there is awareness of the need to promote critical thinking, which aims to contribute to making decisions about what to do or believe. Such empowerment would be possible if philosophy were included in those educational levels where it is still absent.