Many students resist critical pedagogy because it requires "considerable mental activity" (Mason 346): listening and evaluating carefully, putting aside biases, tolerating the discomfort of uncertainty, and changing patterns of behavior (Browne and Freeman 308). Critical thinking also requires individuals to question their own beliefs, which requires courage and humility (qtd. in Mason 341). Because people shape their identity around their beliefs, threats to the stability of their perceived reality also threaten to destabilize their identity (qtd. in Gorzelsky 74-5).

Dabrowski identified this as an early stage of disintegration in which individuals resist losing control of existing psychological structures to protect themselves. But protecting students from the discomfort of doubt ultimately harms them because the effects of critical thinking--understanding, tolerance, compassion--benefit both the students and the people with whom those students interact. Because critical thinking can upset students by destabilizing their sense of identity, a critical pedagogy requires an emotionally-sustaining environment from both the teacher and the peer community (Kienzler 325).

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