Critical theory originated as a radical social theory that critiqued how science had become an ideology that shaped social action. The intellectual project of critical theory sought to integrate social values, judgments, and interests into social science. Key principles of critical theory include critiquing rationality and capitalism, and examining how overly rational and technical philosophies detract from reflection on moral and ethical issues. Critical theory was established by the Frankfurt School theorists Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, and Erich Fromm. In education, critical theory has been integrated through social learning practices that use online networks to support knowledge development in diverse, open, autonomous and connected ways, with teachers taking on more of a facilit

1. Critical Theory
For Panel Discussion
By:
Cheryl M. Asia, MAED

2. What are the underlying principle of
Critical Theory?
 The early critical theory has been variously
characterized as a radical social theory (or sociology).
Ingram and Simon-Ingram (1991)
 Science had become an ideology, a culturally produced
and socially supported, unexamined way of seeing the
world which shapes and guides social action.

3. What are the underlying principle
of Critical Theory?
 The intellectual project of critical theory thus
required recovering from early philosophy the
elements of social thought which uniquely
concerned the values, judgments, and
interests of humankind, and integrating them
into a framework of thought which could
provide a new and justifiable approach to
social science (Carr & Kenunis, 1986, p. 132).

4. What are the underlying principle
of Critical Theory?
 The critical theorists were concerned not only with
disclaiming rationality, science, and the technical
altogether but rather with returning them to balance with
other aspects of life, such as moral perspectives.
 The capitalism remains an important issue for many
critical theorists. Habermas, for example, believes that
capitalist societies oppose democracy, partly by
discouraging rational communication and encouraging
destructive beliefs in "bourgeois ideologies revolving
around competitive achievement, possessive
individualism, familial privatism, and consumerism"
(Ingram & Simon-Ingram, 1991, p. xxxii).

5. What are the underlying principle
of Critical Theory?
 Critical theorists also suggest that modem
social crises, say in education or government,
are related to the intrusion of overly rational
(scientific, analytical, technological),
instrumental, means-ends philosophies that
detract from reflection on our ultimate ends--
ends related to good and bad, right and
wrong. Habermas (1983/1990)

6. What are the underlying principle
of Critical Theory?
 Associated with the work of critical theorists
(Popkewitz, 1990)
1. "immanent critique, which proceeds through
forcing existing views to their systematic
conclusions, bringing them face to face with their
incompleteness and contradictions, and,
ultimately, with the social conditions of their
existence" (Young, 1990, p. 18)
2. strands of methods from disciplines such as
psychology, economics, history, sociology, and
philosophy.

7. Proponents of Critical Theory
 Critical theory maintains that ideology is the
principal obstacle to human liberation.
 Critical theory was established as a school
of thought primarily by the Frankfurt School
theoreticians Herbert Marcuse, Theodor
Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin,
and Erich Fromm.

8. Herbert Marcuse was a
German-American
philosopher, sociologist,
and political theorist,
associated with the
Frankfurt School of Critical
Theory. Born in Berlin,
Marcuse studied at the
universities of Berlin and
then at Freiburg, where he
received his PhD.

9. Theodor W. Adorno
was a German
philosopher,
sociologist,
psychologist and
composer known
for his critical
theory of society.

10. Max Horkheimer was
a German
philosopher and
sociologist who was
famous for his work in
critical theory as a
member of the
'Frankfurt School' of
social research.

11. Walter Bendix Schönflies
Benjamin was a German
Jewish philosopher,
cultural critic and essayist.
An eclectic thinker,
combining elements of
German idealism,
Romanticism, Western
Marxism, and Jewish

12. Erich Seligmann
Fromm was a
German-born
American social
psychologist,
psychoanalyst,
sociologist,
humanistic
philosopher, and
democratic socialist.

13. How Critical Theory is
Implemented or integrated to
educational system?
 Critical Theory in our educational system was
integrated through our social learning like
practices of using Web we characterized
online networks to support knowledge
development are that they are diverse, open,
autonomous and connected.
 As a teacher, E-learning literature increasingly
perceives the role of a teacher as facilitator .