Schooling for Critical Consciousness
Schooling for Critical Consciousness
Project Summary
Critical consciousness refers to the ability to understand and challenge oppressive forces such as racism, sexism, and classism. A growing body of research has found that youth critical consciousness is predictive of a range of positive outcomes for both young people themselves and the communities in which they live and lead. This project investigates the role that secondary schools and educators can play in supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) adolescents’ critical consciousness of racism and other oppressive forces.
Approach
This is the first project the researchers are aware of that investigates BIPOC adolescents’ developing critical consciousness from the first day of high school to high school graduations four years later. The research team spent more than 300 days observing in participating high schools to learn more about programming and practices that contribute to young people’s critical consciousness development.
Measurement & Metrics
The research team measured critical consciousness through social analysis, political agency, and social activism. Example measures include Oyserman, et al.’s (1995) Awareness of Racism, Peterson, et al.’s (2011) Sociopolitical Control Scale for Youth, and Corning, et al.’s (2002) Activism Orientation Scale.
Key Findings
- Participating adolescents’ growth in key dimensions of critical consciousness over four years of high school was predictive of their cumulative grade point at the end of high school enrollment of students with disabilities.
- Participating adolescents demonstrated five different trajectories in their developing commitment to activism that ranged from steady growth over four years of high school to more sudden growth in the final years of high school to steady growth in the beginning years of high school followed by subsequent disengagement.
- Participating adolescents demonstrated significant, linear growth in their awareness of interpersonal and systemic forms of racism between middle and late adolescence. In describing their understanding of racism, adolescents’ invocation of examples of systemic racism grew more frequent as they advanced through high school.
- Adolescents attending high schools featuring different pedagogical orientations demonstrated significant growth on different dimensions of critical consciousness over their four years of high school.
By the numbers
5
waves of surveys with 335 students in five high schools
4
waves of interviews with 60 students and 31 teachers
335
observation days across five high schools over four years