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-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T06:27:14.435Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Introducing the Contexts and Settings of Youth’s Critical Consciousness Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

By
Erin B. Godfrey  and
Luke J. Rapa
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

Structural oppression and systemic inequity are interwoven into the fabric of American society. One need only reflect on the past decade to see the continued pernicious influence of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, nativism, heterosexism, transphobia, and multiple other forms of marginalization on the rights, freedoms, and humanity of large segments of our society. We live in a system of white supremacy and patriarchy that patterns not only our history but our current society, institutions, interactions, and beliefs about each other and ourselves (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). To be Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant, differently-abled, gay, gender-expansive, female-identified – among many other identities – means being subjected to systems and structures that, at best, limit access to the resources and privileges others take for granted and, at worst, take away fundamental rights to life, liberty, and choice. To be white, straight, able-bodied, male-identified, and more (e.g., Christian Protestant) means wielding privilege one may or may not know one has, but that contributes to the maintenance of these inequities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Developing Critical Consciousness in Youth
Contexts and Settings
 , pp. 1 - 14
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

Bañales, J., Hoffman, A. J., Rivas-Drake, D., & Jagers, R. J. (2020). The development of ethnic-racial identity process and its relation to civic beliefs among Latinx and Black American adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(12), 2495–2508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bañales, J., Lozada, F. T., Channey, J., & Jagers, R. J. (2021). Relating through oppression: Longitudinal relations between parental racial socialization, school racial climate, oppressed minority ideology, and empathy in Black male adolescents’ prosocial development. American Journal of Community Psychology, 68(1–2), 88–99.Google Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Brown, B. B., & Larson, J. (2009). Peer relationships in adolescence. In Lerner, R. M. & Steinberg, L. (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology: Contextual influences on adolescent development (pp. 74–103). John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Brown, C. S., Mistry, R. S., & Yip, T. (2019). Moving from the margins to the mainstream: Equity and justice as key considerations for developmental science. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 235–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12340.Google Scholar
Cabrera, N. L., Milem, J. F., Jaquette, O., & Marx, R. W. (2014). Missing the (student achievement) forest for all the (political) trees: Empiricism and the Mexican American studies controversy in Tucson. American Educational Research Journal, 51(6), 1084–1118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cervantes-Soon, C. G. (2012). Testimonios of life and learning in the borderlands: Subaltern Juárez girls speak. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(3), 373–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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), 170–184.Google Scholar
Clark, S., & Seider, S. (2017). Developing critical curiosity in adolescents. Equity & Excellence in Education, 50(2), 125–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Frisby, M. B., Pinedo, A. et al. (2022). Development of the Short Critical Consciousness Scale (ShoCCS). Applied Developmental Science, 26(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2020.1834394.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., & Hsieh, C. A. (2008). Sociopolitical development and vocational expectations among lower socioeconomic status adolescents of color. The Career Development Quarterly, 56(3), 257–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Hsieh, C. A., & Pan, T. (2009). School and parental influences on sociopolitical development among poor adolescents of color. The Counseling Psychologist, 37(2), 317–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Kauffman, A., Koenig, N., Trahan, E., & Hsieh, C. A. (2006). Challenging racism, sexism, and social injustice: Support for urban adolescents’ critical consciousness development. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 12(3), 444–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diemer, M. A., & Li, C. H. (2011). Critical consciousness development and political participation among marginalized youth. Child Development, 82(6), 1815–1833.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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diemer, M. A., & Rapa, L. J. (2016). Unraveling the complexity of critical consciousness, political efficacy, and political action among marginalized adolescents. Child Development, 87(1), 221–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth in crisis. W. W. Norton and Co.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1968/2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness (Vol. 1). Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Ginwright, S., & James, T. (2002). From assets to agents of change: Social justice, organizing, and youth development. New Directions for Youth Development, 2002(96), 27–46.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, 2018(161), 17–38.Google 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), 525–537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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.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
Kelly, L. L. (2018). A snapchat story: How Black girls develop strategies for critical resistance in school. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(4), 374–389.Google Scholar
Kirshner, B., & Ginwright, S. (2012). Youth organizing as a developmental context for African American and Latino adolescents. Child Development Perspectives, 6(3), 288–294.Google Scholar
Lerner, R. M., & Steinberg, L. (2009). Handbook of adolescent psychology: Individual bases of adolescent development (Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Maker Castro, E., Wray-Lake, L., & Cohen, A. K. (2022). Critical consciousness and wellbeing in adolescents and young adults: A systematic review. Adolescent Research Review, 1–24.Google Scholar
Mathews, C. J., Medina, M. A., Bañales, J. et al. (2020). Mapping the intersections of adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness. Adolescent Research Review, 5(4), 363–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center (2021, December 10). America’s public school teachers are far less racially and ethnically diverse than their students. www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/10/americas-public-school-teachers-are-far-less-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-than-their-students/.Google Scholar
Picower, B. (2009). The unexamined whiteness of teaching: How white teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies. Race Ethnicity and Education, 12(2), 197–215.Google Scholar
Quintana, S. M. (1999). Children’s developmental understanding of ethnicity and race. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 7(1), 27–45.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., Bolding, C. W., & Jamil, F. M. (2020a). Development and initial validation of the short critical consciousness scale (CCS-S). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 70, 101164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101164.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., Bolding, C. W., & Jamil, F. M. (2020b). (Re)Examining the effects of open classroom climate on the critical consciousness of preadolescent and adolescent youth. Applied Developmental Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2020.1861946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapa, L. J., Diemer, M. A., & Bañales, J. (2018). Critical action as a pathway to social mobility among marginalized youth. Developmental Psychology, 54(1), 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000414.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., & Godfrey, E. B. (in press[a]). Critical consciousness theory and measurement: Mapping the complex terrain. In Rapa, L. J. and Godfrey, E. B. (Eds). Critical consciousness: Expanding theory and measurement. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., & Godfrey, E. B. (Eds.) (in press[b]). Critical consciousness: Expanding theory and measurement. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roy, A. L., Raver, C. C., Masucci, M. D., & 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.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruck, M. D., Mistry, R. S., & Flanagan, C. A. (2019). Children’s and adolescents’ understanding and experiences of economic inequality: An introduction to the special section. Developmental Psychology, 55, 449–456. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000694.Google Scholar
Seider, S., Clark, S., & Graves, D. (2020). The development of critical consciousness and its relation to academic achievement in adolescents of color. Child Development, 91(2), e451–e474. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seider, S., & Graves, D. (2020). Schooling for critical consciousness: Engaging Black and Latinx youth in analyzing, navigating, and challenging racial injustice. Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Seider, S., Graves, D., El-Amin, A. et al. (2016). Preparing adolescents attending progressive and no-excuses urban charter schools to analyze, navigate, and challenge race and class inequality. Teachers College Record, 118(12), 1–54.Google Scholar
Spanierman, L. B., & Smith, L. (2017). Roles and responsibilities of white allies: Implications for research, teaching, and practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(5), 606–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017717712.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.CrossRefGoogle 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.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watts, R. J., Griffith, D. M., & Abdul-Adil, J. (1999). Sociopolitical development as an antidote for oppression – theory and action. American Journal of Community Psychology, 27(2), 255–271.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., & Hipólito-Delgado, C. P. (2015). Thinking ourselves to liberation?: Advancing sociopolitical action in critical consciousness. The Urban Review, 47(5), 847–867.Google Scholar
Youniss, J., & Yates, M. (1997). Community service and social responsibility in youth. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, M. A., Ramirez-Valles, J., & Maton, K. I. (1999). Resilience among urban African American male adolescents: A study of the protective effects of sociopolitical control on their mental health. American Journal of Community Psychology, 27(6), 733–751.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
×