“A different pair of glasses”: Impacts of a school-based antiracist program on student and teacher critical race consciousness

Schools are essential sites for nurturing critical consciousness about race and racism with youth of color. Yet, limited research has taken up how critical race consciousness development can be carried out with a primarily white teaching force or about the classroom practices of white teachers who are motivated to do this work. Drawing on observational data collected over four years, this chapter describes and analyzes lessons taught by three white educators as they earnestly attempt to teach about race and racism. Ultimately, we conclude that these white teachers used meaningful, thoughtful, and rigorous curricula resources to support their students’ developing critical consciousness about race and racism, yet they encountered several pedagogical challenges that may be rooted in their socialization into whiteness. Our findings have implications for white teacher preparation and support and offer practical insights for white teachers who are actively seeking to foster critical race consciousness with their students.

Background/Context Critical consciousness (CC) is an awareness and reflection of inequities, political efficacy, and agency in response to injustice. Similarly, sociopolitical development (SPD) is the process of developing a critical understanding, skill set, and emotional depth to enact individual agency against oppressive forces. Of the latter, SPD is vital in empowering youth from traditionally marginalized communities to challenge inequities. However, SPD has largely remained absent from U.S. classrooms. Purpose/Objective/ Research Question/Focus of Study Considering the absence of SPD in U.S. classrooms, this case study explores the SPD of Black female preservice teachers and their Black female high school mentees in a two-year tutoring and mentoring school-based program. Our study captures the woke pedagogical experiences that advanced participants’ co-constructed CC. As such, we seek to describe student exemplars of what it means to be awakened and stay woke through an analysis of interviews, journal reflections, and video data. To this end, the research question that guided this study was: What are the perspectives of Black female youth as they co-construct CC toward SPD in a two-year tutoring and mentoring school-based program? Research Design Through the lenses of critical race feminism and woke pedagogies, this study used a single case study design. Case study is appropriate for this study because it highlights the particularity and complexities of one unit of analysis. Findings Our findings capture the perspectives of Black female youth as they cultivate CC toward sociopolitical development in one educational initiative geared toward partnering undergraduate and high school students. An examination of data through the lens of critical race feminism and woke pedagogies spotlighted the perspectives of our participants as they co-constructed CC through woke pedagogical experiences. Mentors deepened their CC on race, and mentees gained heightened awareness of gendered and racialized school procedures and policies. Black girls in this study woke up (CC) and stayed woke through their activism (SPD). Conclusions In sharing the perspectives of Black female youth as they cultivated SPD, it is our intention that the critical approach and experiences that we have described capture the methods and strategies that one educational initiative implemented to empower and promote agency among Black female students. As an example of woke pedagogy, this educational initiative offered Black girls at the intersection of race, gender, and class an opportunity to critically question their world and become aware of racial and social injustices impacting their everyday lives and community.

In this article, the author considers the ways in which a White first-year teacher performs critical racial consciousness in the context of her urban fifth-grade classroom. The process of critical racial consciousness engagement is complex as well as understudied outside of preservice courses. The findings of this study fall into three themes—racial identity reflection, awareness of inequity, and challenges to engagement—and demonstrate that most of the ways in which this teacher engages in critical racial consciousness are subtle. The author asserts that “discourses of possibility” related to White racial consciousness can be encouraged in teacher preparation courses and concludes the article with implications for preservice teacher education and in-service teacher development.

Extant literature on the experiences of Black male college athletes focuses on outcomes, such as their college engagement (academic, athletic, and social), graduation rates, and post-college transitions. However, there is a lack of focus on the antecedents of these outcomes. This article offers empirical findings from a study of 16 Black male college athletes’ developmental experiences at Division I historically white institutions. The study employed a constructivist grounded theory methodology and incorporated a three-stage coding analysis to make sense of data. A key finding from this study is the identification of the (Sub)Conscious Decision-Making Filter, which is comprised of the following four components: (a) Self-Schemata; (b) Critical Racial Consciousness; (c) Social Associations Related to Racial, Athletic, and Student Identities; and (d) Internal Conflict. Data analysis offers insights into the meaning-making processes of Black male college athletes as they exist in majority white spaces, which is vital for sport administrators who seek to support the optimal holistic development of this important stakeholder group.

Advancing racial justice requires changes in White people's critical consciousness, including understanding the historical, material, and cultural conditions that have given rise to and maintain racism and White supremacy on individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels. To effect such changes, we need to better understand White people's current racial attitudes and their relation to anti‐racist action. Consistent with the QuantCrit framework, this study explored White Americans’ (N = 531; mean age = 34.4; 60.8% female) racial attitudes using Latent Profile Analysis with indicators selected from measures categorized within four themes: empathic connection in cross‐racial relationships, affective awareness of white privilege, blatant colorblind racial attitudes, and structural awareness. LPA resulted in four profiles based on patterns in participant responses to indicator items: Uncritical, Ambivalent, Incongruous, and Critical racial attitudes. Analyses of demographic differences between profile members indicated that participants with higher levels of critical racial consciousness were more likely to be women, trans, or non‐heterosexual, and have more friendships with People of Color. Members of profiles with higher levels of critical reflection also had significantly higher scores on racial justice action outcomes.

Dismantling systems of racial oppression requires that people from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds become critically conscious in challenging racial injustices. Youth’s pathways to critical consciousness may be very different depending on youth’s experiences with racial oppression and privilege. This chapter brings together relational developmental systems and critical race and intersectionality theories and existing research that can offer insights into different underpinnings and processes related to youth of color and white youth’s critical consciousness development. We also show how mapping complex variations in critical reflection, motivation, and action and situating these processes within contexts of oppression and privilege can advance understanding of critical consciousness development. We conclude by summarizing promising future directions for theory and research.

ABSTRACTWe know little about the challenges districts and teachers face when establishing Ethnic Studies courses. In one school district, variation in teachers’ Ethnic Studies knowledge impeded the production of curricula and its implementation. This study examines how Ethnic Studies teachers responded to the problems of differential knowledge and orientation on race, power, and teacher positionality in the context of high school classrooms. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, I argue that a praxis-oriented approach to teacher professional development can play a central role in preparing Ethnic Studies teachers. Through political education and critical race dialogue, teachers developed their critical consciousness, which then led to a collective identity and shared views on major elements of Ethnic Studies’ curricular perspectives and approach. This study holds significant implications for teacher education and professional development as schools, districts, and states create policies to contribute to an equitable and inclusive public education through Ethnic Studies curricula.

This research describes and assesses Critical Race Theory (CRT) pedagogy in a higher education ethnic studies course for police officers. CRT pedagogy aims to help students overcome “color-blind” thinking, which minimizes awareness of racism, by raising their critical understanding of racism and framing it as a pervasive and institutionalized reality that everyone has a responsibility to change. Using the Color Blind Racial Awareness (COBRA) Scale, critical awareness in three cluster areas, white privilege, institutional discrimination, and blatant racism, is measured among those completing the ethnic studies course and a comparison group of officers completing a different college course for police. Conclusions reflect on the impact of the course on students’ awareness of racism, the correlation of identity and awareness of racism, the hypothetical impact of such awareness in policing and possibilities for future research.

The majority of teacher preparation for culturally and linguistically diverse student populations has focused on the development of beliefs and attitudes of White general education teachers. This leaves much to be understood as to the development of belief systems of teachers with Latinx heritage and how they relate to their students with disabilities. This study applied theories of critical race theory and funds of knowledge to better understand how the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of our teacher candidates were key to fostering the development of their teacher identities. This resulted in the development of the Cultivating Critical Consciousness in Educators Framework (CCCE), a comprehensible framework for understanding the beliefs and practices essential for educators to practice critical consciousness. Findings demonstrate within group diversity of beliefs varying along a continuum of dysconscious to critical consciousness related to systemic racism, ableism, discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender expression, and sociolinguistic issues. Implications for teacher education practice and future research also are shared.

PurposeIn this article, we highlight ways in which disability critical race theory (DisCrit) (Annamma et al., 2013), inclusive education and community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be used within professional development schools (PDS) to provide students with disabilities with more access to inclusive classrooms. At a grade 4–6 elementary school, we developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms. We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model. Findings suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice. This study can inform tailored professional development efforts to improve educators’ inclusive practices.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model.FindingsThe findings of this study suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice.Practical implicationsThis study can inform tailored professional development efforts aiming to improve educators’ inclusive practices.Originality/valueWe developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms.

The literature on critical consciousness (CC) has seen rapid growth in the past ten years. However, the literature has given very little attention to CC in preadolescent children. In this chapter, we contend that the sociopolitical and civic elements of early to middle childhood development have been understudied. Emphasizing the familial, social, and educational systems that structure the lives of young children, we elaborate on the evidence that young children hold the capacity for understanding social inequities, becoming empowered to work for social change, and acting against injustice, and we provide concrete examples of how CC might be identified and measured at different stages of the early childhood developmental period. In addition, we show that the structural emphasis of the CC literature and related literatures (e.g., work on critical race theory) adds much-needed context to the study of bias and stereotyping in early childhood.

The community-level attributes of two youth HIV prevention initiatives in a single community are examined using the concepts of social capital, empowerment and critical consciousness. The school-based peer education programme and youth-initiated public clinic ‘add-on’ facility for the treatment of adolescent sexually transmitted diseases had differing experiences in terms of implementation, community acceptance, sustainability and achieving their goals. By examining the role of conscientization, networks for accessing resources and power, and community acceptability of adolescent HIV prevention, this paper describes the differing experiences of these two programmes. The paper indicates the need for true adolescent agency in challenging the social constructions of adolescent HIV risk at the social and community levels.

Given the overwhelming whiteness of teacher education, we offer a pedagogical approach rooted in critical race theory, and draw on Carter’s (2008) notions of critical race consciousness to: 1) center a critical race perspective in methods-based coursework; and 2) employ critical race theory to analyze the function and role of clinical fieldwork. In this article, we provide examples of how we engage white teacher candidates to preemptively take stock of their own racial journey and biases prior to being responsible for educating students of color. We also focus on the process of selecting clinical placements and assignments. We explicate how current selection criteria for clinical sites and cooperating teachers are undergirded by systems of white supremacy, and problematize the reality of majority white clinical placements. We further provide suggestions for teacher education programs that pay particular attention to the roles and responsibilities of white teacher educators and predominantly white teacher education programs.

Despite consensus that parent involvement is integral to children's educational success, Black parents’ involvement remains largely characterized from a deficits‐based perspective. Using critical race and critical consciousness theories, this study explored parents’ analysis of educational inequities and their school engagement. Using interview data from a sample of Black parents (n = 20), emergent understandings of parents’ thoughts, motivations, and actions to engage with their child's school were explored. Findings revealed that Black parents held both critical and traditional views, expressed themes of internal and external efficacy in their motivation, and engaged critically and traditionally in their child's education. Results are consonant with literature on Black parents’ engagement and to the nascent understanding of how parents' beliefs about structural racial oppression within schools impacts how they engage in that space.

Career and technical education (CTE) gives students access to skill development and greater economic opportunity, but challenges in the CTE system are pervasive for students of color, specifically Black and Latinx students. This study examines Black and Latinx high school student and teacher experiences with race in a profession-based learning program that awards CTE credits. This basic qualitative study is built around a conceptual framework that examines what racism is in CTE, how it creates barriers for people of color and how activating sociopolitical consciousness of students and teachers may enhance student agency. Findings reveal student and teacher perspectives defining race as skin color, strong beliefs in meritocracy, and individualized approaches that lead to a lack of awareness of systemic racism. Teachers play a critical role in supporting students through challenges, but they stop short of using their positions to elevate those challenges toward more meaningful systemic change. The recommendations for CTE programs are (a) examine the ability of students and teachers to identify and discuss barriers that exist because of race and (b) take action to increase sociopolitical awareness and critical consciousness.