Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T10:18:45.470Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Critical Consciousness Development in Place-Based Action Civics

from Part I - Pedagogical, Curricular, and School-Based Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

By
Kathryn Y. Morgan  and
Brian D. Christens
Edited by
Erin B. Godfrey  and
Luke J. Rapa
Erin B. Godfrey
Affiliation:
New York University
Luke J. Rapa
Affiliation:
Clemson University, South Carolina
Get access

Summary

Design Your Neighborhood (DYN) is a place-based action civics curriculum that teaches urban design as a tool for increasing civic participation among youth. The DYN curriculum consists of six-week cross-curricular units for seventh and eighth grade that address local urban design issues that have exacerbated inequality in a rapidly growing southeastern US city. This chapter presents findings related to critical consciousness collected from an ongoing longitudinal, quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study of DYN. Quantitative data includes two measures of critical consciousness collected from treatment and control groups at two timepoints. Qualitative data comes from focus groups with students who completed the curriculum. Although qualitative findings suggest students’ critical consciousness increased after engaging with DYN, descriptive and inferential analysis of quantitative data indicate variation in student outcomes related to critical consciousness. These findings suggest pathways for place-based action civics to better support students’ development of critical motivation and critical action in and out of the classroom.

Keywords

critical consciousnessaction civics educationplace-based educationschool interventions
Type
Chapter
Information
Developing Critical Consciousness in Youth
Contexts and Settings
 , pp. 60 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andolina, M. W., & Conklin, H. G. (2020). Fostering democratic and social-emotional learning in action civics programming: Factors that shape students’ learning from Project Soapbox. American Educational Research Journal, 57(3), 1203–1240. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219869599.Google Scholar
Ballard, P. J., Cohen, A. K., & Littenberg‐Tobias, J. (2016). Action civics for promoting civic development: Main effects of program participation and differences by project characteristics. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3–4), 377–390. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12103.Google Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. In Cooper, H., Camic, P. M., Long, D. L., et al. (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2 (pp. 57–71). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13620-004.Google Scholar
Butler, T. (2017). “We need a song”: Sustaining critical youth organizing literacies through world humanities. Equity & Excellence in Education, 50(1), 84–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2016.1250233.Google Scholar
Camino, L. A. (2000). Youth-adult partnerships: Entering new territory in community work and research. Applied Developmental Science, 4(S1), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS04Suppl_2.Google Scholar
Cammarota, J. (2007). A social justice approach to achievement: Guiding Latina/o students toward educational attainment with a challenging, socially relevant curriculum. Equity & Excellence in Education, 40(1), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680601015153.Google Scholar
Cammarota, J. (2016). The praxis of ethnic studies: Transforming second sight into critical consciousness. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(2), 233–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2015.1041486.Google Scholar
Christens, B. D., Byrd, K., Peterson, N. A., & Lardier, D. T. (2018). Critical hopefulness among urban high school students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(8), 1649–1662. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0889-3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christens, B. D., Collura, J. J., & Tahir, F. (2013). Critical hopefulness: A person-centered analysis of the intersection of cognitive and emotional empowerment. American Journal of Community Psychology, 52(1–2), 170–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-013-9586-2.Google Scholar
Christens, B. D., & Dolan, T. (2011). Interweaving youth development, community development, and social change through youth organizing. Youth & Society, 43(2), 528–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X10383647.Google Scholar
Christens, B. D., & Kirshner, B. (2011). Taking stock of youth organizing: An interdisciplinary perspective. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 27–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.309.Google Scholar
Christens, B. D., Morgan, K. Y., Ruiz, E. Aguayo, A., & Dolan, T. (2021). Critical reflection and cognitive empowerment among youth involved in community organizing. Journal of Adolescent Research, 38(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/07435584211062112.Google Scholar
Christens, B. D., Peterson, N. A., Reid, R., & Garcia-Reid, P. (2015). Adolescents’ perceived control in the sociopolitical domain: A latent class analysis. Youth & Society, 47(4), 443–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X12467656.Google Scholar
Christens, B. D., Winn, L. T., & Duke, A. M. (2016). Empowerment and critical consciousness: A conceptual cross-fertilization. Adolescent Research Review, 1(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-015-0019-3.Google Scholar
Conner, J., & Slattery, A. (2014). New media and the power of youth organizing: Minding the gaps. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(1), 14–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2014.866868.Google Scholar
del Carmen Salazar, M. (2013). A humanizing pedagogy: Reinventing the principles and practice of education as a journey toward liberation. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 121–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0091732X12464032.Google Scholar
Delia, J., & Krasny, M. E. (2018). Cultivating positive youth development, critical consciousness, and authentic care in urban environmental education. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02340.Google Scholar
Demarest, A. B. (2014). Place-based curriculum design: Exceeding standards through local investigations. Routledge.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., & Blunstein, D. L. (2006). Critical consciousness and career development among urban youth. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 68, 220–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.07.001.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., McWhirter, E. H., Ozer, E. J., & Rapa, L. J. (2015). Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of critical consciousness. The Urban Review, 47(5), 809–823.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Rapa, L. J., Park, C. J., & Perry, J. C. (2017). Development and validation of the critical consciousness scale. Youth & Society, 49, 461–483. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0044118X14538289.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Rapa, L. J., Voight, A. M., & McWhirter, E. H. (2016). Critical consciousness: A developmental approach to addressing marginalization and oppression. Child Development Perspectives, 10(4), 216–221. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12193.Google Scholar
Edirmanasinghe, N. (2020). Using youth participatory action research to promote self-efficacy in math and science. Professional School Counseling, 24(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X20970500.Google Scholar
Erickson, A. T. (2016). Making the unequal metropolis: School desegregation and its limits. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. Continuum.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1968/2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.Google Scholar
García, E., & Weiss, E. (2019). The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought. First report in “The Perfect Storm in the Teacher Labor Market” Series. Economic Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Gaston, G., & Kreyling, K. (2015). Shaping the healthy community: The Nashville plan. Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Gingold, J. (2013). Building an evidence-based practice of action civics: The current state of assessments and recommendations for the future. The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.Google Scholar
Ginwright, S. A. (2010). Black youth rising: Activism and radical healing in urban America. Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Godfrey, E. B., & Burson, E. (2018). Interrogating the intersections: How intersectional perspectives can inform developmental scholarship on critical consciousness. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 161, 17–38. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20246Google Scholar
Godfrey, E. B., Burson, E. L., Yanisch, T. M., Hughes, D., & Way, N. (2019). A bitter pill to swallow? Patterns of critical consciousness and socioemotional and academic well-being in early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 55(3), 525. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000558.Google Scholar
Godfrey, E. B., & Grayman, J. K. (2014). Teaching citizens: The role of open classroom climate in fostering critical consciousness among youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(11), 1801–1817. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-0084-5.Google Scholar
Goessling, K. P. (2020). Youth participatory action research, trauma, and the arts: designing youthspaces for equity and healing. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 33(1), 12–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101164.Google Scholar
Gonzales, J. (2015, November 13). Nashville schools have more than 120 languages. The Tennessean. https://eu.tennessean.com/picture-gallery/news/2015/11/13/nashville-schools-have-more-than-120-languages/75664508/.Google Scholar
Heberle, A. E., Rapa, L. J., & Farago, F. (2020). Critical consciousness in children and adolescents: A systematic review, critical assessment, and recommendations for future research. Psychological Bulletin, 146(6), 525–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hess, D. E. (2009). Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. Routledge.Google Scholar
Jemal, A. (2017). Critical consciousness: A critique and critical analysis of the literature. The Urban Review, 49(4), 602–626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-017-0411-3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kember, D., Ha, T. S., Lam, B. H. et al. (1997). The diverse role of the critical friend in supporting educational action research projects. Educational Action Research, 5(3), 463–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, H., Matyasic, S., Schofield Clark, L. et al. (2020). Early adolescent critical consciousness development in the age of Trump. Journal of Adolescent Research, 35(3), 279–308. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558419852055.Google Scholar
Kornbluh, M., Ozer, E., Allen, C., & Kirshner, B. (2015). Youth participatory action research as an approach to sociopolitical development and the new academic standards: Considerations for educators. The Urban Review, 47(5), 868–892. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11256-015-0337-6.Google Scholar
Kreyling, K. (Ed.) (2005). The plan of Nashville: Avenues to a great city. Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Lardier, D. T., Reid, R. J., & Garcia‐Reid, P. (2018). Validation of an abbreviated Sociopolitical Control Scale for Youth among a sample of underresourced urban youth of color. Journal of Community Psychology, 46(8), 996–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22087.Google Scholar
LeCompte, K., & Blevins, B. (2015). Building civic bridges: Community-centered action civics. The Social Studies, 106(5), 209–217.Google Scholar
Levinson, M. (2012). No citizen left behind. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McInerney, P., Smyth, J., & Down, B. (2011). ‘Coming to a place near you?’ The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2010.540894.Google Scholar
Mediratta, K., Shah, S., & McAlister, S. (2008). Organized communities, stronger schools. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.Google Scholar
Means, D., Blackmon, S., Drake, E. et al. (2021). We have something to say: Youth participatory action research as a promising practice to address problems of practice in rural schools. The Rural Educator, 41(3). https://doi.org/10.35608/ruraled.v41i3.1074.Google Scholar
Montero, M. (2009). Methods for liberation: Critical consciousness in action. In Montero, M. & Sonn, C. (Eds.), Psychology of liberation (pp. 73–91). Springer.Google Scholar
Morales, D., Bettencourt, G., Green, K., & George Mwangi, C. (2017). “I want to know about everything that’s happening in the world”: Enhancing critical awareness through a youth participatory action research project with Latinx Youths. The Educational Forum, 81(4), 404–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2017.1350236.Google Scholar
Morgan, K. Y., & Ballard, P. J. (in press). Action civics. In Christens, B. D. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of community empowerment. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, K. Y., Christens, B. D., & Gibson, M. (2022). Design your Neighborhood: The evolution of a city-wide urban design learning initiative in Nashville, Tennessee. In Stoecker, R. & Falcón, A. (Eds.), Handbook on Participatory Action Research and Community Development (pp. 281–300). Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Nah, S., Lee, S., & Liu, W. (2021). Community storytelling network, expressive digital media use, and civic engagement. Communication Research, 49(3), 327–352. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502211019677.Google Scholar
Nation, M., Christens, B. D., Bess, K. D. et al. (2020). Addressing the problems of urban education: An ecological systems perspective. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(5), 715–730. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2019.1705847.Google Scholar
National Action Civics Collaborative. (2014). Action civics framework. https://actioncivicscollaborative.org/why-action-civics/framework/.Google Scholar
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Sage.Google Scholar
Peterson, N. A., Peterson, C. H., Agre, L., Christens, B. D., & Morton, C. M. (2011). Measuring youth empowerment: Validation of a sociopolitical control scale for youth in an urban community context. Journal of Community Psychology, 39(5), 592–605. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plazas, D. (2018). The costs of growth and change in Nashville. The Tennessean. www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/david-plazas/2017/01/29/costs-growth-and-change-nashville/97064252/.Google Scholar
QSR International Pty Ltd. (2018) NVivo qualitative data analysis. Version 12 [software]. https://support.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/s/.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., Bolding, C. W., & Jamil, F. M. (2020). Development and initial validation of the short critical consciousness scale (CCS-S). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 70, 101–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101164.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., & Geldhof, G. J. (2020). Critical consciousness: New directions for understanding its development during adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 70, 101187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101187.Google Scholar
Roy, A., Raver, C., Masucci, M., & DeJoseph, M. (2019). “If they focus on giving us a chance in life we can actually do something in this world”: Poverty, inequality, and youths’ critical consciousness. Developmental Psychology, 55(3), 550–561. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000586.Google Scholar
Smith, D. A., & Gruenewald, G. A. (Eds.) (2007). Place-based education in the global age: Local diversity. Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, G. A. (2007). Place-based education: Breaking through the constraining regularities of public school. Environmental Education Research, 13, 189–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701285180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, D. W., & Shamdasani, P. N. (2014). Focus groups: Theory and practice (Vol. 20). Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Tyler, C. P., Olsen, S. G., Geldhof, G. J., & Bowers, E. P. (2020). Critical consciousness in late adolescence: Understanding if, how, and why youth act. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 70, 101165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101165.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau (2020). Quick facts – Davidson County, TN. www.census.gov/quickfacts/davidsoncountytennessee.Google Scholar
Voight, A., & Velez, V. (2018). Youth participatory action research in the high school curriculum: Education outcomes for student participants in a district-wide initiative. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 11(3), 433–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2018.1431345.Google Scholar
Walsh, D. (2018). Youth participatory action research as culturally sustaining pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 57(2), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2018.1433939.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., Diemer, M. A., & Voight, A. M. (2011). Critical consciousness: Current status and future directions. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2011(134), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., & Flanagan, C. (2007). Pushing the envelope on youth civic engagement: A developmental and liberation psychology perspective. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(6), 779–792. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20178.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., & Hipolito-Delgado, C. P. (2015). Thinking ourselves to liberation? Advancing sociopolitical action in critical consciousness. The Urban Review, 47(5), 847–867. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-015-0341-x.Google Scholar
Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237–269.Google Scholar
Wright, D. E. (2020). Imagining a more just world: Critical arts pedagogy and youth participatory action research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 33(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1678784.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×