Fostering Critical Thinking and Ethical Awareness in English through Historical Consciousness

Abstract

This thesis investigates how historical consciousness can be used as a literary tool of analysis in English in upper secondary school to foster the core value “Critical thinking and ethical awareness” specified in the Norwegian Education Act 2020. Based on the research on critical thinking, ethical awareness and historical consciousness, and considering the competence aims in English, a lesson plan is proposed that concentrates on the development of critical thinking and ethical awareness through literary analysis. Additionally, the two border-crossing novels Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli and How the García Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez, which were chosen due to the research discussed on critical thinking, ethical awareness and historical consciousness, are analysed by applying historical consciousness as a literary tool of analysis. The literary analysis indicates that the synthesis materialized in the lesson plan of mainly Paulo Freire’s research linked to critical thinking, Suzanne Keen and Antonio Damasio’s research associated with ethical awareness and Hayden White and Paul Ricœur’s research related to historical consciousness effectively fosters competence, such as perspective-taking, empathy and narrative imagination, required to think critically, act ethically and to be historically conscious.