Dear Jkk, thank you for your interesting (and complex) question.
Many many people talk about critical thinking. Promoting a critically and rationally way of thinking is one of the aims of all educational institutions. Philosophers up from very ancient times (like Socrates or Plato) have discussed the suitable pathway for critical knowledge. In contemporary times, the philosopher Robert Ennis defined critical thinking as a form of “reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do”. A Latin American educator, Paulo Freire, used the notion of “critical consciousness” referring to the use of critical thinking for analyzing the situation of oppression, as the first step toward change.
From a community psychology perspective, critical thinking may be seen as the search for new strategies and new solutions for collective problems, avoiding re-proposing old attempted solutions, which are often intertwined with the problem, as the systemic scholars stated.
Critical thinking is, therefore, related to efforts to change. You may find ideas in this regard in Community Tool Box, f.i. in Section “Help Taking Action”, sub-section “Best Change Processes”, and precisely “Developing a Framework or Model of Change” on the page https://ctb.ku.edu/en/best-change-processes/developing-a-framework-or-model-of-change/overview. There are suggestions to promote a real process towards changing, taking into account both difficulties and resources existing in social contexts, exploring rationally and critically the best practices for meeting community needs.
Hoping to have provided useful indications, best greetings!
