CFP: Essachess - Journal for Communication Studies

Critical thinking – inside out. Public discourse and everyday life

Guest editors:

Gheorghe CLITAN, Full Professor, West University of Timisoara, Romania ([email protected])

Daniela DUMITRU, Associate Professor, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania ([email protected])

Critical thinking is the second mentioned skill, in the order of importance, as 2020 needed skills (World Economic Forum, 2016). Among other skills we need to survive the fourth industrial revolution are complex problem solving, judgment and decision-making, creativity, cognitive flexibility, negotiation. All of mentioned skills have something in common with deliberation, with thinking in general or with arguing and sustaining a point of view.

Following the ancient perspectives that started from Socrates, 2000 years ago, the modern concept of critical thinking is outlined by the philosopher, psychologist and educator John Dewey. In his book, How we think (1909), he suggested the term of reflective thinking. The author used the term of “reflective thinking” to describe this concept as the active, attentive and perseverant consideration of an opinion or any form of knowledge in the light of the proofs they support and the conclusions they wish to ground (Dewey, 1909). The first paper in which the concept “critical thinking” is coined, is Edward Glaser’s An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking (1941). Later, Glaser proposed the first critical thinking test, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal.

Although Dewey and Glaser had a philosophical point of view, nowadays critical thinking has a more pronounced applied specific features: in communication sciences (public relations, journalism, advertising, documenting science, media studies), in initial and continuous teacher training, in corporate training, in vocational training, in professional development, in career counseling. Thus, critical thinking becomes a remedy against faulty or erroneous thinking and communication, offering ways of correct thinking, developing skills that protect and help people against manipulation.

We salute the continuous effort given by researchers in testing critical thinking skills. These tests are seen not only as evaluation methods, but as real life situations modeling, where thinking is used. An annotated list of the best known critical thinking tests have been elaborated by Robert H. Ennis, and the latest version can be consulted at: http://www.criticalthinking.net/TestListRevised11-27-09.pdf

Starting from this point, we are concerned whether critical thinking is an organic part of public and private environments. The way of finding this is to verify public discourse, the way media is reflecting critical thinking and to highlight usage of critical thinking in counseling (philosophical or else), in work related communication or in private, everyday life conversations. In this respect, we are welcoming papers on critical thinking / argumentation in the media, counseling (philosophical and other forms), consultancy, organizational and workplace critical thinking use (oral and written communication), private communication and other forms of conversation and communication (e.g. social media). The main topics the contributors should refer in their works, for the present Essachess – Journal for Communication thematic number, are the following (other related topics are welcomed):

–      Critical Thinking in advertising

–      Critical Thinking in mass-media

–      Critical Thinking in political discourse

–      Critical Thinking in daily conversations

–      Critical Thinking in religious communication

–      Critical Thinking in corporate communication

–      Critical thinking and communication of science

–      Critical thinking and communication in education

–      Critical Thinking as a field of communication skills testing

–      Critical Thinking as an instrument for efficient/effective communication

–      Critical Thinking as a tool for preserving people's freedom: critical citizenship

Important Deadlines

– April 10, 2018: submission of the proposal in the form of an abstract of maximum 2 pages. The proposal must include a list of recent references and 5 keywords;

– April 30, 2018: acceptance of the proposal;

– July 15, 2018: full paper submission

–  September 30, 2018: full paper acceptance

Full papers should be between 6,000-8,000 words in length. Papers can be submitted in English or French. The abstracts should be in English and French (150-200 words) followed by 5 keywords. Please provide the full names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all authors, indicating the contact author. Papers, and any queries, should be sent to:

[email protected]

Authors of the accepted papers will be notified by e-mail. The journal will be published in December 2018.