Toward Critical Consciousness: One Preservice Teacher’s Approximations in the Elementary Literacy Classroom

The Elementary School Journal Volume 81, Number 1 ? 1980 by The University of Chicago 0013-5984/81/8101-0008$0o1.00 In colleges and universities across the country, prospective and practicing teachers and administrators take courses on planning-curriculum-planning and instructional planning. During the courses, teachers and administrators usually study an objectives-first model of curriculumplanning. This model has four steps. Planners are expected to 1. Formulate objectives 2. Choose appropriate learning activities

Critical consciousness (CC) is associated with beneficial developmental outcomes among youth contending with oppression, yet we know little about how CC develops and how the three dimensions of CC (i.e., critical action, critical motivation, and critical reflection) interrelate over time. Therefore, this study employed second-order latent growth modeling to illuminate the longitudinal interplay between the three dimensions of CC among 518 youth activists (Mage = 16; girls = 53%; 11% Asian, 20% Black, 39% Latinx, 8% Multiracial, and 6% White). Youth demonstrated significant growth in critical reflection and action over time, but not in critical motivation. Participation in community-based activism was positively associated with CC development. Altogether, these findings illuminate channels for fostering youth CC and increase our understanding of CC's dynamic development.

This chapter presents school-based action civics interventions as a setting for critical consciousness (CC) development. Action civics programs guide students to take collective action to address locally relevant civic issues within a context that promotes reflection and skills development. We highlight one action civics program, Generation Citizen (GC), and overlay programmatic components with the core elements of CC to elucidate how action civics may support CC development and where the constraints may be. The features of GC that we propose align with CC development are: placing action at the center of the program; fostering critical social analysis and reflection; valuing children's right to participation; and focusing on skill-building. Images of youth-generated action civics presentation posters are used to illustrate aspects of CC. Finally, this chapter offers next steps to bridge across CC and action civics theory, research, and practice.

While schools can perpetuate societal inequities, they can also provide opportunities for students' critical consciousness (CC) development. To gain a comprehensive understanding of CC development in schools and address the potential conflation of individual student perceptions of school climates with their CC, we examined associations between students' and teachers' perceptions of racialized school climates—specifically assimilationism, color-evasion, multiculturalism, and CC —and students' CC of racialized inequities, including critical reflection, motivation, and interpersonal and structural action. Our sample comprised 832 students (M = 15.05 years, SD = 0.75, 44.5% female, 4.2% non-binary) and 198 teachers in 23 secondary schools in Thuringia, Germany, with data collected in 2022. Multilevel path analyses and school-level bivariate correlations revealed that student and teacher reports of CC climate were related to more, and teacher-reported assimilationism to less critical reflection. Effects for color-evasive and multiculturalist climates on various CC facets were mixed, including positive and negative effects across student and teacher reports. To cultivate youth CC as resource and tool for driving transformative change, measures fostering a CC climate should be taken, including social-justice oriented training programs for educators.

IntroductionSystemic racism exposes Black and Latinx adolescents to a range of traumatic stressors that increase the risk for long-term emotional and behavioural health (EBH) problems. Researchers have theorised that critical consciousness (CC)—awareness of societal inequities and engagement in action to promote social justice—may serve as a protective factor that promotes youth well-being. There are few rigorous longitudinal research studies, however, that examine the development of CC among adolescents, the association over time of CC with EBH and the potential of CC to protect against harmful effects of race-related stress. This longitudinal study, Resilience in a Stressful Era (RISE), addresses these gaps using a mixed methods approach with Black, Latinx and White adolescents in Baltimore.Methods and analysisWe plan to enrol up to 650 Black, Latinx and White adolescents ages 14–19 who reside in Baltimore, Maryland. The recruitment will include outreach through youth-serving organisations, community events, youth networks, social media, snowball sampling and re-contacting adolescents who participated in a prior study (R01HD090022; PI: Mendelson). Participants will complete online questionnaires assessing exposure to pandemic- and race-related stress, CC and EBH twice per year over 4 years as they transition into early adulthood. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, in-depth interviews exploring the development and impact of CC will be conducted with a subset of participants selected based on their CC scores and, separately, their caregivers. A Youth Advisory Board comprised of adolescents who are representative of our target study population will be developed to provide input on the study and its implementation. Growth mixture modelling and latent variable modelling will be used to analyse quantitative data. Themes identified through qualitative analyses will expand the understanding of quantitative findings.Ethics and disseminationAll study procedures were approved by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Institutional Review Board. Findings will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at academic conferences. We will also communicate research findings with study participants and disseminate findings to the Baltimore community, such as developing briefs for the Baltimore City Health Department and/or hosting a town hall meeting for Baltimore families.

This article reports the findings of a collaborative autobiographical narrative inquiry into the critical consciousness development in the lives of three white female graduates who worked as undergraduate research assistants (RAs), while they were preservice teachers. Their RA work included data collection and equity analysis of the web content concerning dual language bilingual education (DLBE) of several school districts in the United States. This study focuses on these preservice teachers’ critical consciousness growth before, during, and after their RA work. Findings show calls to critical consciousness development around three particular aptitudes: Empathetic perspective taking via racialized friends, calls to specific naming of patterns of power in university coursework, and calls to first-hand evidence during their RAship. A fourth finding was advocacy pedagogy. We make a call to pay attention to the different areas of critical consciousness and share implications for teachers, teacher education, DLBE, and the staffing of research teams.

This article provides a personal reflection on the development of the author's critical consciousness and is meant to trigger debate on the relevance critical consciousness has for adult educators. Freire's stages of consciousness are used to provide a framework for understanding its development. Links between critical consciousness and consciousness raising are examined, and the issue of resistance is explored; these connections are used to discuss praxis involving both thought and action. Examples of the author's actions are used to illustrate how the development of critical consciousness has changed her personal, academic, and professional life. These demonstrate that critical consciousness does not evolve on its own, but rather requires supports that are external to oneself. Résumé Cet article constitue une réflexion personnelle sur le développement de la conscience critique de son auteure et vise à amorcer le débat sur la pertinence de cette conscience pour les éducateurs d'adultes. Les étapes de la conscientisation de Freire fournissent un cadre pour comprendre ce développement. L'on y examine les liens entre la conscience critique et la conscientisation ainsi que la question de la résistance. Ces liens sont utilisés pour analyser la praxis qui implique la pensée et l'action. Des exemples parmi les actions de l'auteur sont utilisés afin d'illustrer comment le développement de la conscience critique a changé sa vie personnelle, académique et professionnelle. Cet exercice montre que la conscience critique n'évolue pas toute seule mats requiert un soutien de soi-même comme de l'extérieur.

Civic action describes participation in political and prosocial activities aimed at benefiting one's communities. A growing literature rooted in critical consciousness (CC) theory suggests that engaging in critical action, which challenges societal inequities, is important for the positive development of youth of color. Although valuable, existing literatures have yet to consider how psychological processes related to the immigrant experience, such as immigrant optimism (IO), may differentially influence the civic participation of immigrant youth of color. IO is a phenomenon in which immigrant groups hold higher aspirations and more positive views of the host society than their nonimmigrant peers, and this often is associated with positive outcomes. This article reviews and integrates relevant research on the civic development of immigrant youth of color, considering both how IO may be a particularly relevant process in shaping immigrant youths' CC development and how civic action may take different forms among these youth. We define concepts, integrate previously siloed literatures, and make recommendations for future research. We propose expanding existing frameworks to consider IO and forms of action, along with their intended outcome. Incorporating IO into studies of CC or civic development can clarify important differences and enhance our understanding of how best to support immigrant youth. Similarly, examining forms of action and their intended outcome may be advantageous in facilitating young immigrants' development as active and engaged members of society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Depending upon Paulo Freire’s notion of critical consciousness (CC), this study investigates how the comparative analysis of traditional and non-traditional European fairy tales could impact the development of critical consciousness in pre-service English teachers and how they can use this skill for social change in their professional lives. Data were collected using narrative frames and semi-structured interviews at a university in the west of Türkiye as tools to investigate the experiences of 22 pre-service teachers taking the Discourse Analysis and Language Teaching course during the fall 2022 to 2023 semester. The thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed an overarching theme, development of critical consciousness, and three sub-themes: development of critical thinking and reading skills, development of social awareness for gender equality through socio-political development, and an awareness of using gender-sensitive language. The results rest on the assumption that the development of critical consciousness through literary texts empowers the process of becoming a critical teacher who can liberate his/her students from social injustices by taking critical actions for a more egalitarian world.

Researchers have identified reading achievement as a critical factor in overall student achievement (NRP, 2000; Reis et al., 2011). Increasing diversity in schools requires that teachers be well versed in literacy pedagogy that meets the needs of students who struggle as well as those who are advanced learners (Firmender, Reis, & Sweeny, 2014; Ivey & Broaddus, 2001; Reis et al., 2004, 2008; Samuals & Farstrup, 2001). While research has shown that teachers are providing more targeted opportunities for remediation for struggling readers (Bender & Waller, 2011; Gambrell, Morrow, & Pressley, 2007), instruction for high-achieving readers is not begin given as much attention, leaving the more advanced readers with fewer meaningful learning opportunities in literacy (Firmender, Reis, & Sweeny, 2013). The majority of elementary students in the United States require targeted, differentiated literacy instruction (Firmender, Reis, & Sweeny, 2013; Robb, 2008). Building, improving, and maintaining high teacher quality are essential in order to move toward equitable literacy learning opportunities for students. This is why it is vital that novice teachers enter the field prepared to design and implement literacy instruction that is responsive to students’ strengths and needs. Teacher educators are becoming more aware of the evolving nature of reading development and the necessity of preparing new teachers to be able design and teach targeted literacy lessons (King, Williams, & Warren, 2010; McGuire-Schwartz, & Arndt, 2007). An approach that has been adopted by some teacher educators as a framework for designing instruction that addresses students’ strengths and needs is Universal Design for Learning, which encourages teachers to proactively consider multiple methods in which to represent content, increase and sustain student engagement, and allow for student expression of understanding (CAST, 2007; Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014; Rose, Meyer, & Hitchcock, 2005). The purpose of this capstone project was to explore pre-service teacher participants’ sense-making of the integration of Universal Design for Learning in literacy lesson planning and implementation in order to provide information that had the potential to help the site university elementary education program coordinator and faculty members make informed decisions about future teacher preparatory coursework and field placements. This Capstone was structured as a multiple-case study of pre-service teacher participants, in which their integration of literacy lesson components that aligned with the UDL principles and their sense-making of planning and implementing literacy lessons were investigated. This capstone project was structured as a multi-case study of three pre-service teacher participants. Data were collected over a 12-week period of time in the fall of 2017. Data sources included screening surveys, interviews, observations, and collected lesson plans. These data collection methods were chosen in order to provide a rich description of each of the cases and to provide details about each participant’s sense-making of UDL when planning and teaching literacy lessons during her student teaching experience. Data were stored and coded through the use of the qualitative software MaxQDA. I initially began data analysis by open-coding the collected data, later coding data into conceptual categories that emerged. I also used the Miles and Huberman (1994) interactive model for data analysis, which includes three steps: (a) data reduction; (b) data displays; and (c) conclusion drawing/verifying. Considerations about trustworthiness, credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability were addressed through data triangulation, analytic memos, a methodological journal, and utilizing a peer reviewer. This research study was a multi-case study in which I investigated three participants’ sense-making of UDL during their student teaching experiences. Each participant completed her student teaching in an elementary grade level placement, ranging from first-grade to fifth-grade. The school and district contexts varied between cases. Four cross-cutting themes arose as a result of data collection and analysis. The three findings of this case are as follows: Finding 1: Participants exhibited well-developed understandings of developmental literacy practices, but a lack of understanding of UDL as a framework for designing and implementing literacy lessons. Finding 2: Participants felt limited in their ability to incorporate means of representation, engagement, and expression into their literacy lesson plans due to the factors of time and/or literacy curricular resources in their placement classrooms, indicating a lack of deep understanding of how to integrate UDL into their lesson plans. Finding 3: Decisions made during the implementation of lessons were informed by student responses to instruction and by the factors of time and curricular resources, indicating a lack of understanding in how to integrate the UDL principles during lesson implementation, and also leading to feelings of dissonance between participants’ personal literacy practices and the implemented literacy events. Based on my research questions and the corresponding findings, my three recommendations for the site university’s elementary education program coordinator are: Recommendation 1: Because the participants did not indicate readiness to integrate the UDL principles into lesson plans or during lesson implementation, it would be beneficial for the site university education program to offer a pre-service teacher course that is focused on the philosophy of differentiation and that includes instruction on the frameworks that can be used to assist them in the design and teaching of differentiated lessons. Recommendation 2 : It would be beneficial for the site university’s teacher education program coordinator and faculty members to conduct as an assessment of all potential field placements for pre-service teachers to ensure flexibility in time and curricular resources. Additionally, it would be beneficial to provide training for pre-service teachers that enables them to differentiate lessons in spite of any contextual circumstances that may be present in their placement classrooms. Recommendation 3: Prior to student teaching, it would benefit the site university’s pre-service teachers to have authentic opportunities to design and implement differentiated lessons, using targeted frameworks for differentiation on which they have received instruction. There was evidence collected as a result of this multi-case study on pre-service teachers’ sense-making of UDL in the planning and implementation of literacy lessons, that participants demonstrated significant understandings of developmental literacy but indicated low understandings of UDL as a framework for the design and implementation of literacy lessons. This study was conducted to describe pre-service teacher participants’ sense-making of UDL in literacy lesson planning and implementation. Further research on novice teachers’ sense-making of UDL as a framework for literacy instruction would be beneficial, as very few studies have been conducted that focus on pre-service or novice teachers’ theoretical understandings of UDL and/or the integration of UDL principles in planning and teaching lessons.

Brazilian philosopher-educator Paulo Freire defined critical consciousness as the ability to engage in reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it. A growing body of research has found that critical consciousness is predictive of a number of important academic and civic outcomes in adolescents from oppressed groups. The present mixed methods study considered the critical consciousness development of 335 adolescents (57% female, 92% African American or Latinx) attending urban secondary schools that sought to foster their students' critical consciousness, but featured five different pedagogical approaches. We hypothesized that considering these adolescents' critical consciousness development through a character lens would highlight ways in which different schooling models contribute differentially to their students' development of the intellectual, performance, and civic dimensions of critical consciousness. Longitudinal analyses revealed significant differences in the critical consciousness development of adolescents attending different schooling models along these dimensions. Interviews with adolescents and field work conducted at their schools offered insight into the programming and practices that may have contributed to these differences in students' critical consciousness development.

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy: An Important Factor in School Improvement

This study aims to characterise and understand the manifestation of critical mathematics consciousness (CMC) in the modelling process and the relationships that are established between mathematical modelling as a teaching methodology and the development of critical consciousness. Based on a contextualised topic of interest, the students produced mathematical models, and an improved analytical framework based on education for critical mathematical consciousness was used to analyse the interpretations and validations produced. In addition, a questionnaire was applied to ascertain consciousness at an individual level. The results show that the application of the analytical framework generated insights into the development of critical mathematics consciousness. Furthermore, it was noted that the use of questions seems to help in the development of mathematical modelling by deepening discussions and benefiting the development of CMC. This suggestion contributes to the evolution of CMC, through the reflection on social issues in the production of a model. It appears that mathematical modelling is favourable to the manifestation of CMC.

As part of the developmental stage of emerging adulthood, youth may cultivate critical consciousness (CC) to transform oppressive systems. CC development may be influenced by discriminatory experiences and may affect well-being. To better understand longitudinal CC development and its relationship to discrimination and well-being (i.e., perceived stress, anxiety, hopefulness), we studied a U.S. national longitudinal cohort of emerging adult college students between the ages of 18 and 22 at baseline (Mage = 20.0, SD = 1.3) who completed four surveys between April 2020 and July 2021 (N = 684). The analytic sample was 63% women and 37% men (gender-diverse participants were removed due to small sample size) and 26% lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer/questioning, and other minoritized sexual identities. Self-identified race/ethnicity backgrounds were 54% white, 20% Asian/Pacific Islander, 9% Latinx, 5% Black, and 10% multiple races/ethnicities and/or as Middle Eastern/North African. We conducted latent profile transition analysis and identified five patterns of CC development, with a minority of participants in two "growth" transition patterns wherein they increased their CC over time. Maintaining higher levels of CC, and especially developing CC, was associated with more prior experiences with discrimination and with concurrent and subsequent higher levels of perceived stress and anxiety. We recommend institutions of higher education and college-based organizations to build well-being practices and structures into CC-raising spaces to support empowering CC development amid ongoing sociopolitical turmoil. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

A growing body of scholarship in teacher education details methods for supporting inservice and preservice teachers in developing critical consciousness, particularly White preservice teachers. Less examined is critical consciousness development for Black preservice teachers. This study employs case study methods to examine beliefs and practices related to critical consciousness of four Black preservice teachers and explore how participating in a social justice-centered university teacher preparation program and a linked social justice-centered residency program supported critical consciousness development. Findings highlight the complexity of critical consciousness positioning and development for Black preservice teachers. Implications for university teacher preparation programs, residency programs, and future research are discussed.