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.

scholarly journals Stories We Tell

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 481-499
Author(s):  
Danté Bryant ◽  
Karen M. Kolivoski
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Work ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Underrepresented Populations ◽  
Quantitative Survey ◽  
Social Work Faculty ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Faculty And Administrators ◽  
Survey Responses

Although there is a growing body of literature denoting social work’s efforts to engage many of the internal racial challenges it faces, there remains a paucity of research exploring the impacts of normative-whiteness and White supremacy within the profession. In an effort to address this gap in the literature, this investigation uses quantitative survey responses from 167 non-racially specific, currently active, social work faculty and administrators, and 12 qualitative interviews with African American, currently active, social work faculty and administrators to gain a more lucid understanding of how they view the roles and impacts of whiteness and White supremacy within Social Work. Thematic findings from this investigation include narratological-deception, epistemological-omission, and a divided-profession. Implications for social work suggest the need to equitably incorporate the contributions of racially underrepresented populations, while critically engaging and responding to the “why,” “how,” and “impacts” of their historical omission.

Preparing Adolescents Attending Progressive and No-Excuses Urban Charter Schools to Analyze, Navigate, and Challenge Race and Class Inequality

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-54
Author(s):  
Scott Seider ◽  
Daren Graves ◽  
Aaliyah El-Amin ◽  
Shelby Clark ◽  
Madora Soutter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Sociopolitical Development ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Class Inequality ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
The Social

Background/Context Sociopolitical development (SPD) refers to the processes by which an individual acquires the knowledge, skills, emotional faculties, and commitment to recognize and resist oppressive social forces. A growing body of scholarship has found that such sociopolitical capabilities are predictive in marginalized adolescents of a number of key outcomes, including resilience, academic achievement, and civic engagement. Many scholars have long argued that schools and educators have a central role to play in fostering the sociopolitical development of marginalized adolescents around issues of race and class inequality. Other scholars have investigated school-based practices for highlighting race and class inequality that include youth participatory-action research, critical literacy, and critical service-learning. Objective of Study The present study sought to add to the existing scholarship on schools as opportunity structures for sociopolitical development. Specifically, this study considered the role of two different schooling models in fostering adolescents’ ability to analyze, navigate, and challenge the social forces and institutions contributing to race and class inequality. Setting The six high schools participating in the present study were all urban charter public high schools located in five northeastern cities. All six schools served primarily low-income youth of color and articulated explicit goals around fostering students’ sociopolitical development. Three of these high schools were guided by progressive pedagogy and principles, and three were guided by no-excuses pedagogy and principles. Research Design The present study compared the sociopolitical development of adolescents attending progressive and no-excuses charter high schools through a mixed methods research design involving pre-post surveys, qualitative interviews with participating adolescents and teachers, and ethnographic field notes collected during observations at participating schools. Results On average, adolescents attending progressive high schools demonstrated more sig-nificant shifts in their ability to analyze the causes of racial inequality, but adolescents attending no-excuses high schools demonstrated more significant shifts in their sense of efficacy around navigating settings in which race and class inequality are prominent. Neither set of adolescents demonstrated significant shifts in their commitment to challenging the social forces or institutions contributing to race and class inequality. Conclusions Both progressive and no-excuses schools sought to foster adolescents’ commitment to challenging race and class inequality, but focused on different building blocks to do so. Further research is necessary to understand the pedagogy and practices that show promise in catalyzing adolescents’ analytic and navigational abilities into a powerful commitment to collective social action—the ultimate goal of 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.

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.

Safe Spaces: Gay-Straight Alliances in High School

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Fetner ◽  
Athena Elafros ◽  
Sandra Bortolin ◽  
Coralee Drechsler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
High School ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Safe Space ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
The People

In activists' circles as in sociology, the concept "safe space" has beenapplied to all sorts of programs, organizations, and practices. However,few studies have specified clearly what safe spaces are and how theysupport the people who occupy them. In this paper, we examine one sociallocation typically understood to be a safe space: gay-straight alliancegroups in high schools. Using qualitative interviews with young adults inthe United States and Canada who have participated in gay-straightalliances, we examine the experiences of safe spaces in these groups. Weunpack this complex concept to consider some of the dimensions along whichsafe spaces might vary. Participants identified several types of safespace, and from their observations we derive three inter-related dimensionsof safe space: social context, membership and activity.

Intimacy as Transgression and the Problem of Freedom

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kym Maclaren
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Critical Insight ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
What Matters

“To consent to love or be loved,” said Merleau-Ponty, “is to consent also to influence someone else, to decide to a certain extent on behalf of the other.” This essay explicates that idea through a meditation on intimacy. I propose, first, that, on Merleau-Ponty’s account, we are always transgressing into each other’s experience, whether we are strangers or familiars; I call this “ontological intimacy.” Concrete experiences of intimacy are based upon this ontological intimacy, and can take place at two levels: (1) at-this-moment (such that we can experience intimacy even with strangers, by sharing a momentary but extra-ordinary mutual recognition) and (2) in shared interpersonal institutions, or habitual, enduring, and co-enacted visions of who we are, how to live, and what matters. Through particular examples of dynamics within these layers of intimacy (drawing upon work by Berne and by Russon), I claim that we are always, inevitably, imposing an “unfreedom” upon our intimate others. Freedom, then, can only develop from within and by virtue of this “unfreedom.” Thus, what distinguishes empowering or emancipating relationships from oppressive ones is not the removal of transgressive normative social forces; it is rather the particular character of those transgressive forces. Some transgressions upon others’ experience—some forms of “unfreedom”—will tend to promote freedom; others will tend to hinder it. This amounts to a call for promoting agency and freedom not only through critical analysis of public institutions, practices and discourses, but also through critical insight into and transformation of our most private and intimate relationships.

A Discussion of Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird’s Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-210
Author(s):  
Michael Leo Owens
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Black Political Behavior

Charge: As Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird note, collectively more than 80% of African Americans self-identify as Democrats according to surveys, and no Republican presidential candidate has won more than 13% of the Black vote since 1968. This is true despite the fact that at the individual level many African Americans are increasingly politically moderate and even conservative. Against this backdrop, what explains the enduring nature of African American support for the Democratic Party? In Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, White and Laird answer this question by developing the concept of “racialized social constraint,” a unifying behavioral norm meant to empower African Americans as a group and developed through a shared history of struggle against oppression and for freedom and equality. White and Laird consider the historical development of this norm, how it is enforced, and its efficacy both in creating party loyalty and as a path to Black political power in the United States. On the cusp of perhaps the most consequential presidential election in American history, one for which African American turnout was crucial, we asked a range of leading political scientists to assess the relative strengths, weaknesses, and ramifications of this argument.

scholarly journals Implementation Research to Understand and Target Complex Needs: A Case Study of US-based Food Assistance Programming (P10-147-19)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Warren ◽  
Edward Frongillo ◽  
Shana Alford ◽  
Erin McDonald ◽  
Jessica Escobar-Alegria
Keyword(s):  
Implementation Research ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Food Assistance ◽  
Functional Abilities ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Physical Strength ◽  
Complex Needs ◽  
Assistance Programs ◽  
The Right ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Objectives The objective of this study was to understand needs among seniors for food and food assistance and to develop a comprehensive taxonomy for these needs. Methods A total of 147 seniors were purposively sampled from 12 food-assistance programs in 9 states. Of the 12 programs, 10 provided unprepared foods and 2 provided pre-cooked meals. Data were semi-structured qualitative interviews. Coding and analysis of transcripts followed an inductive qualitative analysis approach. A series of thematic summaries were prepared to reflect the content of the interviews for discussion and refinement of the analytic approach. Results An emergent taxonomy comprised 3 categories consisting of abilities and ranges or variants of those abilities. The category of physical ability consists of physical strength, the ability to prepare food, the ability to walk or stand, and health status. These relate to an individual's functional abilities to live and act independently and may be considered pre-conditions for program uptake and benefit distinct from dietary and food security-related needs and limitations. The category of consuming food consists of preferences, accessibility, affordability, and dietary needs. This category highlights the relationship between economic constraints and dietary needs that often necessitates meaningful tradeoffs in consuming the right foods for their health. The category of access and use of transportation consists of own means, friends or family, and public or private services. This category highlights challenges in accessing programs and provides insight into seniors’ experiences of poverty, declining functional abilities, social networks and connectedness, geography, and public services. Conclusions The process used to develop the taxonomy and the taxonomy itself provide an exemplar for implementation research when the nature of need is complex and programs integrated across sectors are required to address the need. The taxonomy provides structure to facilitate the identification of key factors in program engagement—and insight into the economic and social environments in which they occur—that translate into needs relevant to the design, targeting, and uptake of food assistance in a diverse population of seniors. Funding Sources Enterprise Rent-a-Car Foundation.

Black Voices, White Power

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Redding
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Media Ownership ◽  
Black Voices ◽  
Black Media ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Insight Into

When a former Black editor says he was told that Blacks do not care about news by his White boss and a Black deejay is told that his commentary is too hard hitting and not to go to an event featuring a Black militant leader by his White boss, these personal accounts could be extrapolated to mean that there may still be a world filled with White privilege and an ensuing hegemonic bifurcation in a communication studies context. This study utilizes Afrocentricity and the agency that is denied to these two individuals to provide insight into a world where these Black media/newsroom personnel describe how they lost ground to their White media owners. Those interviewed said this world does not promote the agency that comes with Afrocentricity, which is utilized as a critical cultural studies lens to interpret these 18-question qualitative interviews. The environment that those interviewed described is a world not often viewed in the context of White media ownership and the Black-focused content that is produced within them, but is a phenomenon that may be better understood by utilizing an Afrocentric lens in a Communication Studies context.

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