The Development of Critical Consciousness

2020 ◽  
pp. 202-221
Author(s):  
Scott Seider ◽  
Aaliyah El-Amin ◽  
Lauren Leigh Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Sociopolitical Development ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Consciousness Development ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches

Critical consciousness refers to the ability to recognize and analyze oppressive political, economic, and social forces shaping society and to take action against these forces. Critical consciousness is often conceptualized as consisting of three distinct yet overlapping dimensions: critical reflection, political self-efficacy, and sociopolitical action. In this chapter, the authors report on a growing body of scholarship that has found critical consciousness to be predictive of a number of key outcomes for individuals from oppressed groups and their communities. They also report on a number of conceptual frameworks theorizing the processes underlying critical consciousness development, describe several new scales for measuring such development, and review a diverse set of pedagogical approaches to fostering critical consciousness. The chapter concludes with several of the key issues that the authors believe are ripe for scholars interested in critical consciousness and sociopolitical development to take on in the coming years.

Fostering the Sociopolitical Development of African American and Latinx Adolescents to Analyze and Challenge Racial and Economic Inequality

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 756-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Seider ◽  
Lauren Kelly ◽  
Shelby Clark ◽  
Pauline Jennett ◽  
Aaliyah El-Amin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Sociopolitical Development ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Latinx Adolescents ◽  
Insight Into

Sociopolitical development refers to the processes by which an individual acquires the knowledge, skills, and commitment to analyze and challenge oppressive social forces. A growing body of scholarship reports that high levels of sociopolitical development are predictive in adolescents of a number of key outcomes including resilience and civic engagement. The present study explored the role that urban secondary schools can play in fostering adolescents’ sociopolitical development through a longitudinal, mixed-methods investigation of more than 400 adolescents attending “progressive” and “no-excuses” high schools. Analyses revealed that, on average, students attending progressive high schools demonstrated meaningful growth in their ability to critically analyze racial and economic inequality, while students attending no-excuses high schools demonstrated meaningful growth in their motivation to challenge these inequities through activism. Qualitative interviews offered insight into youth’s perceptions of the programming and practices at their respective schools that contributed to their sociopolitical development.

The Development of Critical Consciousness in Adolescents of Color Attending “Opposing” Schooling Models

2021 ◽  
pp. 074355842110064
Author(s):  
Scott Seider ◽  
Daren Graves ◽  
Aaliyah El-Amin ◽  
Lauren Kelly ◽  
Madora Soutter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Consciousness Development ◽  
Adolescents Of Color ◽  
Longitudinal Survey Data ◽  
Departments Of Education ◽  
Rates Of Growth

Critical consciousness refers to the ability to analyze and take action against oppressive social forces shaping society. This longitudinal, mixed methods study compared the critical consciousness development of adolescents of color (n = 453) attending two sets of high schools featuring schooling models that represent “opposing” approaches to education. The participating adolescents were 13-15 years old at the start of the study; the majority identified as African American or Latinx; and nearly 80% came from low-SES households. They attended public charter high schools located in five different northeastern cities. Analyses of longitudinal survey data revealed that the adolescents attending these two sets of high schools demonstrated greater rates of growth on different dimensions of critical consciousness over their four years of high school. Qualitative interviews with youth attending these two sets of schools(n = 70) offered evidence of the long-theorized relationship between critical consciousness and problem-posing education, but also that effective practices supporting youth critical consciousness can be found embedded in schools featuring a broader range of pedagogies. These findings offer support for ethnic studies and action civics programming that several state departments of education have recently added to secondary school curricula.

Critical Consciousness Development

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Aydin ◽  
Kristen Adams ◽  
Laura Barsigian ◽  
John Bruner ◽  
Chih-Ting Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Consciousness Development

The Critical Language Reflection Tool

2022 ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Jennifer Miyake-Trapp ◽  
Kevin M. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Teaching Standards ◽  
International Teaching ◽  
Contextual Awareness

Critical reflection is an integral part of the teaching and learning process that requires educators to reflect on their assumptions and practices to promote equity in their classrooms. While critical reflection practices and frameworks have been proposed in teacher education, a TESOL-specific tool that engages with the unique complexities of world Englishes has not been developed. The current chapter, thus, engages in critical praxis by providing an evidence-based, step-by-step reflection tool for TESOL educators to enact inquiry. The reflection tool is called the critical language reflection tool, which offers open-ended questions surrounding assumption analysis, contextual awareness, and reflection-based action. Moreover, it applies a critical lens to the TESOL international teaching standards to help TESOL educators and teacher educators foster critical consciousness in TESOL classroom contexts.

Embodying justice: Situating college student articulations of social justice in critical consciousness

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Alexander Harris Jones
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
College Student ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Affective Domain ◽  
Christian College ◽  
Adverse Impact ◽  
Consciousness Development

Many American evangelical college students today enter into college with a new awareness of justice-related issues. However, situating student commitments to justice in a larger discourse on critical-consciousness development is necessary for educators to assist students in their justice development. This article reviews the literature on critical-consciousness development and places it in conversation with Deleuzian affect theory, suggesting that extant theory does not take into account the affective domain of critical-consciousness growth. This article also demonstrates common ways Christian college students might portray themselves as critically aware through distinctly Christian tropes that express their passion for and commitment to justice. These tropes, which commonly include human trafficking, diverse friend groups, and being globally-minded, actually have an adverse impact on social justice. By better understanding these tropes as masquerading critical consciousness and by understanding how students become critically aware through affect theory, educators and mentors can more adequately guide students in their attempts to seek justice.

Critical consciousness

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 18-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaliyah El-Amin ◽  
Scott Seider ◽  
Daren Graves ◽  
Jalene Tamerat ◽  
Shelby Clark ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Urban Schools ◽  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Promising Practices ◽  
Marginalized Students ◽  
Consciousness Development ◽  
Motivation And Achievement

Research has suggested that critical consciousness — the ability to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and the commitment to take action against these systems — can be a gateway to academic motivation and achievement for marginalized students. To explore this approach, the authors studied six urban schools that include critical consciousness development in their mission. Three strategies emerged as promising practices that schools can use to develop black students’ critical consciousness and harness the connection between critical consciousness and student achievement. They include teaching students the language of inequality, creating space to interrogate racism, and teaching students how to take action.

Men, Body Image, and Cancer

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Drummond ◽  
Brendan Gough
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Specific Cancer ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Body Image Issues ◽  
Gender Specific ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

Abstract: Despite a growing body of literature around men’s bodies and body image, there is a paucity of research surrounding men and body image within the cancer literature. This chapter considers a range of issues including men’s body image and masculinities as well as illness-induced body dissatisfaction in men. It draws on literature and research to identify key issues so that health professionals can be informed about particular body image issues relevant to male cancer patients. The way in which the chapter is set out is designed to guide the reader through information that will highlight the broader issues facing men with respect to body image. It provides evidence to emphasize the need to understand men and their bodies in contemporary Western society generally and in the context of illness such as prostate cancer, which is the leading gender-specific cancer in men.

Social forces in Southern Africa: transformation from below?

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Leysens
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Social Force ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
Political Economic

The majority of southern Africa's inhabitants are economically marginalised. Robert W. Cox's macro-theory of change suggests that the marginalised are a social force that could bring about political economic transformation from below. Other contemporary analysts also stress the importance of focusing on the marginalised as a source of social instability. The paper uses empirical data from the Afrobarometer (Round 1, 1999–2000) to investigate whether this expectation for the marginalised to act as a catalyst for change in seven southern African states is substantiated. The analysis shows that the political protest potential of the marginalised is lower than that of the economically integrated, that they are more tolerant of authoritarian political alternatives, and that they are not significantly more economically dissatisfied than other groups. They are also inclined to accord somewhat more legitimacy to the state than are the integrated. Societies where large parts of the population are poor and marginalised are thus not necessarily more prone to political instability in the form of protest actions (violent or non-violent). Those who are justly concerned about equity and greater inclusiveness must take cognisance of the need to access the profile of the marginalised.

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