A Qualitative Study and Future Research Agenda for Cultivating Critical Thinking in Culturally Diverse Postgraduate Students

Critical thinking, based on Western cognitive models, is a commonly expected and desired skill in learners in Western academic institutions. This phenomenological study uses an interpretivist paradigm to explore culturally-influenced perceptions of critical thinking. It suggests ways through which marketing instructors and culturally diverse, postgraduate students can change their perspectives to enhance critical-thinking enactment and expression in culturally diverse marketing classrooms. The study expounds a clarified construct of critical thinking and presents a critical-thinking cultivation framework to empower culturally diverse, postgraduate, marketing students with the ability and self-authority to engage in critical thinking. In addition, a toolset of critical-thinking cultivation techniques is offered that marketing instructors can use in the classroom to enable them to achieve their course and university objectives.