Critically Thoughtful Leadership.

This paper discusses critical thinking and ways education leaders can apply it to problems in educational settings. It forwards a model of critical thinking, called TC2, designed by The Critical Thinking Consortium, a group of scholars, teachers, and educational leaders in British Columbia, Canada. The model addresses four interrelated components that influence the making up of one's mind: (1) the critical community: a supportive environment for thinking; (2) the tools for thought: intellectual resources, including background knowledge, criteria for judgment, critical-thinking vocabulary, thinking skills, and habits of mind; (3) the critical challenge: the thinking task; and (4) assessing the tools: adjudicating the quality of thinking. The paper examines the dilemmas of leadership and presents ways to apply the TC2 model through a case study of the opening of a new school and the leadership of its vice principal. (WFA)