getting critical in the first year

Hi,
I'm interested in starting a discussion of how radical (post-*,  
feminist, anti-capitalist, et al) critique can be the focus of a  
first-year seminar. In other words, how do we put the "critical" back  
in critical thinking? I'd like to hear anyone's experience with this--  
texts, approaches, whatever has worked or not.

Some background: I have been tapped to teach the first-year seminar at  
my institution next year, something called "Personal Development and  
the Liberal Arts." In the general course description, critical thinking  
is named as the central concern, and it is described as being something  
like the scientific method. I'm not sure how to explain how my own  
perspective, or that of cultural studies, is differs from the  
scientific method, but I have a pretty good idea that it does.

What I see is an opportunity to take on a probably impossible dual  
task: to encourage the students to develop a critical perspective on  
the knowledge industry AND simultaneously to help them prepare to  
achieve some kind of success within that game.

I am inspired/motivated/admonished by a couple of experiences. At the  
CSA meeting in Pittsburg last year, I was listening a discussion of  
classroom teaching as praxis, when somebody stood up and talked about  
how his students "don't think." Lawrence Grossberg then responded with  
a much-needed bit of discourse on how we have to get away from the idea  
that we are teaching students to think-- of course they are thinking,  
and they just might not be doing it the way we want or expect. This  
made an impression-- the student as the "other" of we enlightened,  
edumacated types. I was teaching composition at the time, and my  
then-chair was also a role model for me: she never complained about  
"how dumb they are these days," but rather spoke of various kinds and  
degrees of "skills."

Similar subjects have been picked up by, for example, John Bardi  
(http://www.ma.psu.edu/~jfb9/probes/critical_thinking1.htm) and Gerald  
Graff  
(http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/ 
clueless_in_academe_an_interview_with_gerald_graff.php).

Some questions:

- how can critical theory (broadly conceived) shape not only research  
but classroom teaching that doesn't just reach the "good 15%" of the  
students?
- how can the perennial curricular goal of "critical thinking" be  
imagined within the tradition of Marx's "ruthless critique of  
everything in existence," Horkheimer's/Nietzsche's chestnut about truth  
not being worshipped, or Foucault's examplary practice of both?
- how can the "subjugated knowledges" of students be recast as a  
resource?
- is the concept of "discourse" an effective way to frame these issues?  
After all, college students are often encountering new or foreign  
discourses, especially in the process of filling "liberal arts"  
requirements in various fields. How is a meta-discursive awareness best  
translated/presented to 18-year-olds with perhaps marginal book skills?
- how have faculty appropriated "liberal arts" curricula in the  
interest of general, engaged critique, rather than conservation of  
canons (perhaps moving from the liberal to the radical arts???)?

Any input on such matters is most appreciated!
Ben