Critical thinking - the educational ideal of higher education - has become a mandatory objective that academics and educators seek to develop within their students as a crucial skill for their academic success, in the university setting and even beyond in the workplace (Davis, 2011). Critical thinking has become increasingly prominent in language education in the 21st century (Li, 2016).

With the demands of the twenty-first century, many countries in the world – in addition to western countries - have initiated educational reforms trying to ameliorate the students’ learning experiences, along similar lines (Bell, Stevenson and Neary, 2009). However, in Algeria, critical thinking has not received the same attention as other basic skills (Melouah, 2017; Kheladi, 2019). It has not been seriously supported by the educational system, and there is little evidence of it being infused into the curriculum (Benmati, 2008). Djamaa (2016, p.252) claims: ‘. . . critical thinking, however the cornerstone of higher education worldwide nowadays, seems lost in the shuffle in Algeria, particularly in the EFL classroom’.

Therefore, this study aims to explore the real state of critical thinking in the the Algerian university, nowadays, from different dimensions to identify where the actual problem lies. More specifically, this research aims the explore the extent to which critical thinking is integrated in the policy documents communicated by the Ministry of Higher Education. It aims also to explore EFL teachers’ conceptualisations of critical thinking, whether or not they have a deep understanding of the concept, how they view the significance of incorporating critical thinking in different subjects, and what teaching approaches and potential practices they employ to infuse it in their pedagogy, if there are any, highlighting the obstacles and challenges that prevent them from implementing critical thinking in their classes. Lastly, this study aims to investigate whether critical thinking has moved from the educational agenda to actual educational practices.

To achieve these aims, this study adopts a qualitative methodology using an exploratory case study design. Case study research design was particularly chosen to provide a holistic picture of the state of critical thinking in Algerian higher education using multiple methods of data collection. Adeyemi (2008) argues that combining multiple research tools reduces the risk of bias in the research outcomes, minimises threats to the validity and reliability of the research findings, and hence maximises the trustworthiness of the study. Therefore, three research instruments were employed in the study: document analysis, classroom observation, and semi-structured interviews. Three curriculum documents of English language were analysed. Data were gathered from ten EFL university teachers using purposive and convenience sampling strategies, and ten classroom observation sessions were conducted. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data following the six phases of thematic analysis outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006).

Overall, the results indicated that the curriculum documents do not emphasise critical thinking as an educational objective, most of the objectives are related to lower cognitive skills. it was also revealed that there is a significant lack of knowledge and understanding of the concept of critical thinking among teachers. Therefore, it is very unlikely for teachers who do not have knowledge about critical thinking, and who do not practise and model critical thinking to be able to develop it in students. Although, teachers were aware of the importance critical thinking inside and outside the classroom, they believed that it is not meant for everyone. They argued that critical thinking is an intricate concept that can be possessed by or developed only in intermediate or advanced students. Moreover, teachers highlighted a number a challenges they deemed to be impeding to the cultivation of critical thinking. Lack of motivation and resistance to challenging activities were among student’s related issues. Teachers also perceived shortage of time and the length of syllabuses, along with the system’s marginalization of critical thinking as hindrances to the development of critical thinking. The findings imply that teachers focus more on the content, and on transmitting all aspects of the language, but they neglect the ultimate goal that any university across the globe aim at: to teach the students how to think critically about the knowledge they receive and not only what to think about. Despite the claim of adopting new innovative teaching approaches, it was revealed that the exam-centric education and the teacher-centered approach are still dominating our educational system which leaves no room to the cultivation of critical thinking.

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