Critical Theory Research Articles

Critical Realism Reflection Theory in Australia’s VET-Trained Volunteer Bilingual Breastfeeding Support Initiate

Aim: The research initiative, a collaborative effort, supports the government's role in these programs through volunteers, which is crucial and underscores the potential benefits of VET programs for immigrants. Globally, breastfeeding rates have plateaued, and Australia and its diverse cultural groups present a unique landscape for the emergence of pluralistic societies. This rich diversity has shaped the shift in breastfeeding rates, characterised by a significant reliance on community-based organisations. Methodology: Critical realism, as an emergent phenomenon, may be recognised as the 'offspring' of a complex system. It offers a reflective position. Policies aim to have breastfeeding at the forefront of health. As a platform for life-long learning, VET holds immense potential to integrate immigrants into labour markets and empower them, fostering a sense of sustainability and self-reliance. Findings: This study has been mutually beneficial, highlighting the value of diverse perspectives. In breastfeeding organisation research, applying critical realism theory has proven valuable, offering significant insights and underscoring its relevance in this study. Conclusion: We have enriched our understanding, particularly in the context of small groups as selfhelp. The promotion through the Korean web page was public rather than patient.

Enhancing Teaching Practice Coordination: Exploring School Mentors' Perspectives on Assessment Rubrics and Their Role in Guiding Student Teachers.

Effective teaching practices are crucial for fostering the intellectual development of learners, thereby making the evaluation of instructional practices during Teaching Practice (TP) sessions imperative. This study aims to investigate primary and secondary school mentor teachers' perceptions about teaching practice assessment rubrics and their role as mentor teachers, all to enhance teaching practice coordination. Drawing from constructivist, social cognitive, situated learning, professional identity development, and critical pedagogy theories, a qualitative case study approach was employed within an interpretivist paradigm. Data were collected through focus group discussions from 77 secondary and primary school mentors during a teaching practice orientation workshop in the central region of Botswana. The analysis of data was thematic, revealing mentor teachers' perceptions of assessment rubrics, challenges faced, and readiness to supervise student teachers. Results indicate that while mentors perceive the rubrics as effective tools, challenges such as lack of clarity and workload burden exist. The study further recommends enhancing assessment rubric clarification, addressing workload issues, improving student teacher resource supports, promoting collaboration, as well as conducting further research on teaching practice coordination. Implementing these recommendations can enhance teaching practice effectiveness, better preparing aspiring teachers for future roles, and fostering a supportive learning environment.

Redefining Education in China: Cultural and Social Impacts of the Double Reduction Policy

The Double Reduction Policy, implemented in China in July 2021, aims to reduce students’ academic burdens, alleviate financial pressures on families, and address systemic educational inequities. By restricting extracurricular tutoring and regulating homework, the policy emphasizes holistic development, creativity, and emotional well-being over exam-oriented practices. This study applies Cultural Historical Activity Theory, Cultural Critical Discourse Theory, and Bernstein’s (2000) theoretical concepts to analyze the policy’s cultural and social impacts on students, teachers, and parents. The findings reveal that the policy reconfigures roles within the educational ecosystem: students are encouraged to pursue self-directed and creative learning, teachers take on expanded responsibilities as agents of systemic reform, and parents shift from passive supporters to active collaborators. Bernstein’s concepts of classification, framing, and pedagogic discourse highlight how the policy redefines boundaries, regulates educational practices, and reshapes identities. Despite its transformative goals, resistance persists, particularly regarding reduced academic competition and adapting to redefined roles. This study underscores the policy’s dual role as systemic reform and cultural intervention, offering insights into balancing tradition and modernity while providing a framework for global equity-driven reforms.

Critical Consciousness and Youth Political Activism

Like previous generations, today's youth are engaging in political activism to positively transform their local communities and the broader society. This review applies critical consciousness theory to shed light on the factors that spur youth political activism and to highlight how developing critical consciousness engenders developmental benefits. Critical consciousness refers to structural and historical reasoning about inequality, motivation to promote social change, and political activism to bring about social equity. A succinct review of outcomes associated with critical consciousness is presented first, followed by a nuanced contemporary understanding of the precursors to youth critical consciousness development. In closing, this review highlights exciting emerging directions in this area of research and offers reflections on the trajectory of critical consciousness scholarship. All told, critical consciousness research illuminates a strength-based approach for supporting youth's healthy development that adequately attends to the psychological, historical, and structural facets of youth experience.

Strategic intersectional identity management strategies amidst identity threats: insights from U.S. Latina nonprofit CEOs

PurposeThis study identifies the strategic intersectional identity management (SIIM) behaviors that Latina nonprofit CEOs engage in to navigate hegemonic spaces.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via semi-structured life history interviews with Latina CEOs of nonprofit organizations and analyzed using critical race feminist thematic analysis grounded in critical race theory (CRT), Latinx Critical Legal (LatCrit) theory and feminist theory. Counterstorytelling methods reveal Latina CEOs’ SIIM behaviors and challenge dominant narratives of leadership.FindingsLatina CEOs recounted experiences of identity threats and their identity manifestations and suppression strategies within five contexts: white supremacy hotbeds, liberal white supremacist spaces, pan-ethnic Latinx communities, white feminist spaces and women of color (WOC)-led workplaces.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on Latina CEOs of nonprofits, a distinct context which shares many similarities with for-profit CEO roles. We use a small sample size that, while appropriate for our methodology, limits generalizability.Practical implicationsThis research provides valuable insights for practitioners, including board members, donors, staff and coalition partners. It highlights the need for changes in board development, funder education and transformative allyship among coalition partners.Originality/valueThis paper offers SIIM as a way to challenge monolithic constructions of Latinidad and advocates for intersectional analyses and nuance when studying and supporting Latina leaders.

Understanding the stress field at the lateral termination of a thrust fold using generic geomechanical models and clustering methods

Abstract. This study employs numerical simulations based on the limit analysis (LA) method to calculate the stress distribution in a model that includes a basal detachment, featuring the lateral termination of a generic fault under compression. We conduct 2500 2D and 500 3D simulations with varying basement and fault friction angles to analyze and classify the results into clusters representing similar failure patterns to understand the stress fields. Automatic fault detection methods are employed to identify the number and positions of fault lines in 2D and fault surfaces in 3D. Clustering approaches are utilized to group the models based on the detected failure patterns. For the 2D models, the analysis reveals three primary clusters and five transitional ones, qualitatively consistent with the critical Coulomb wedge theory and the influence of inherited structural and geometric aspects over rupture localization. In the 3D models, four different clusters portray the lateral prolongation of the inherited fault. High stress magnitudes are detected between the compressive boundary and the activated or created faults and at the root of the inherited active fault. Tension zones appear near the outcropping surface relief, while stress decreases with depth at the footwall of the created back thrusts. A statistical cluster-based stress field analysis indicates that for a given cluster, the stress field mainly conserves the same orientations, while the magnitude varies with changes in friction angles and compressive field intensity, except in failure zones where variations are sparse. Small parametric variations could lead to significantly different stress fields, while larger deviations might result in similar configurations. The comparison between 2D and 3D models shows the importance of lateral stresses and their influence on rupture patterns, distinguishing between 3D analysis and 2D cross-sections. Lastly, despite using small-scale models, stress field variations over a span of a couple of kilometers are quite large.

Celebrating Jürgen Habermas and the Institute for Social Research: Reflections on the history of critical theory from a jubilee year

2024 was a jubilee year for the Frankfurt School. On July 24, the Institute for Social Research ( Institut für Sozialforschung), the birthplace of critical theory, marked its centennial. A month earlier, Jürgen Habermas, who is often seen as the intellectual leader of the second generation of the Frankfurt School, celebrated his 95th birthday. In Germany, these overlapping anniversaries have been met with the publication of a number of books on Habermas and the critical theory tradition more generally. Despite the globalization of theorizing within the tradition of the Frankfurt School over the past 50 years, much of its intellectual history of it is still produced in Germany by German scholars based on sources and archives held in the Federal Republic. This Spotlight reviews the main findings and conclusions of this literature for an international, English-speaking audience. It concludes by reflecting on whether critical theory has succeeded—and if so, how.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRt) and Critical Race Theory (CRT): When Is CRt not CRT?

Florida’s Banyan School District attempts to implement culturally responsive teaching (CRt) in the midst of critical race theory (CRT) challenges. This case illustrates how negotiations among the superintendent and stakeholders are multifaceted and fraught with the dynamics of political pressures, funding issues, personal beliefs, professional goals, and students’ preferences. When given the opportunity to listen and respond to the requests of students of color and their families while implementing new state policies, what factors influence educators’ abilities to serve all stakeholders well? This case explores CRt and CRT as frames for educators to use as they reflect on personal and systemic beliefs and practices at their school site.

O anticolonialismo internacionalista dos situacionistas

The aim of this article is to refute the idea that the Situationist International was an organization insensitive to the colonial and anti-colonial question. To this end, it presents the Situationist notions of colonization and decolonization of everyday life in dialogue with the critical theory of the spectacle; it explores aspects of its opposition to the nationalist and statist principles that guided the liberation movements of his time, based on a defense of proletarian internationalism and its project of generalized self-management; and finally, it highlights the fundamental contribution of its non-European members to the development of the organization, as well as their positions on the liberation struggles in Algeria, Congo and Palestine.

Theoretical and numerical bifurcation analysis in a prey–predator model with prey harvesting effort

This paper explores the influence of harvest efforts on a discrete-time prey–predator model. We established the stability criteria for fixed points in the proposed model. We investigate codim-1 and codim-2 bifurcations, exploring a range of multiple and generic bifurcations within the discrete model. The model demonstrates fold, flip, and Neimark–Sacker bifurcations, as well as resonances such as 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4 at distinct fixed points. Through the application of the critical normal form theorem and bifurcation theory, we calculate normal form coefficients for each bifurcation. Our results show that an excessive prey harvest rate can actually destabilize the model dynamics. Numerical simulations validate our findings, shedding light on the intricate dynamics of the system.

From the block to the world: Black placemaking in New York City over three generations

ABSTRACT Following scholars of Critical Race Theory and Black Geographies, this article employs a biographical and genealogical methodology to trace trajectories of social, cultural, and political change in Black urban communities in the 20th century. Specifically, by focusing on the paternal line of the artist and hip-hop pioneer Frederick Brathwaite (known as Fab 5 Freddy), this article examines the relationship of urban space to Black cultural production over time. I argue that cultural and political production are expressions of Black placemaking, reflecting the migratory flows, social conditions, and structural experiences of Black communities in the 20th century. However, the commodification of Black cultural production raises questions regarding its persistence as a form of Black placemaking. Using qualitative sources, this article draws attention to the ways that Black cultural production is a spatial expression. This article also offers insight into the cultural persistence of Black urban communities during the 20th century.

Secrecy in intimate relationships: Rethinking transparency and deceit in monogamies and non-monogamies

This article foregrounds the role of secrets in creating, maintaining and disrupting intimacy. We extend sociological theorising on secrecy by demonstrating the operative role of secrets, across the entire relational spectrum within the non/monogamy system. The focus on non/monogamy is particularly revealing, as questions about secrecy and deceit are intensely charged with moral meanings. Ultimately, we argue that secrecy is an integral and constitutive part of intimate practice. Building on Simmel’s work on deceit and lying, and its recent adaptations within the sociology of secrecy and critical theory, we assert that practices of secrecy should be central to the study of intimacy and the sociology of personal life. The distinction between consensual non-monogamy (e.g. polyamory) and non-consensual non-monogamy (such as affairs) tends to focus on mutual disclosure and transparency as key markers of difference. We take an important step in challenging the dichotomy of secrecy and transparency, showing that strategies of secrecy are implicated in the production of both monogamies or non-monogamies, whether consensual or not.

Musical Counterstories: Racialized Experiences of Asian/Asian American Music Teachers

Despite being the fastest growing population in the United States and a part of many music education programs, Asian and Asian American (AAM) music teachers’ voices often are unheard in music education discourses. The purpose of this study was to begin bringing visibility to the experiences of AAM music educators. The research questions explored in this article are: How do AAM music teachers describe their experience in relationship to their racial identities? and How might AAM educators’ experience be similar or differ in relation to immigrant generational statuses and transnational contexts? We utilized Asian critical race theory as a framework to examine the experiences of 10 AAM music educators. Although collective themes emerged around patterns of racialization, each participant had unique experiences shaped by transnational contexts and immigrant generation. We hope that these data become part of a more robust discourse around AAM experiences in music learning and teaching.

Neither Sepedi nor Northern Sotho/Sesotho sa Leboa is onomastically correct: a colonial imposition

: The primary aim of the article is to assess the appropriateness of the names Sepedi and Northern Sotho/Sesotho sa Leboa, determining which should be officially used based on onomastic principles. Decoloniality and critical discourse analysis theories were used to inform and shape the argument. Employing a mixed-methods research approach, the article utilised survey questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and content analysis for data collection. Quota sampling was applied, selecting 267 participants from South African universities and relevant language authorities. The findings reveal linguistic and historical connections between Sepedi and Sesotho sa Leboa names and colonialism and the apartheid regime. It was further established that these names retain colonial vestiges, associated with a period of oppression that undermines authentic naming practices of African languages. The article concluded that neither Sepedi nor Northern Sotho/Sesotho sa Leboa accurately represent the official standard language, as their naming does not reflect indigenous linguistic traditions, being influenced by colonial power dynamics and other colonial forces.

Virtual Photovoice and Social Work: Unveiling CRT and LatCrit Insights into Latinx Communities in the Southwest During COVID-19

ABSTRACT The paper explores the intersection of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latinx Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) within Latinx communities, focusing on Photovoice as a method to understand systemic inequalities and power dynamics. Drawing on Freire’s concept of critical consciousness, CRT and LatCrit frameworks delve into institutional racism and intersecting forms of oppression experienced by Latinx communities. The study adapted the use of Photovoice to a virtual format during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to authentically capture community narratives. Through the Your Family, Your Neighborhood (YFYN) intervention, Photovoice sessions engage Latinx families in documenting neighborhood strengths and challenges. Virtual adaptation enabled inclusivity and participation despite geographical barriers. Thematic analysis of participant-generated photos and narratives reveals community strengths in resilience, faith, and recreational spaces in response to challenges such as environmental hazards and inadequate infrastructure. This paper also highlights the role of social work in integrating culturally relevant methodologies to better understand and address Latinx experiences. By leveraging digital technologies, remote Photovoice projects uphold principles of participation and empowerment, contributing to nuanced understandings of Latinx realities within the U.S. socio-cultural landscape and offering valuable insights for social work practice and advocacy.

Debates sobre la ciudad y lo urbano

Within the field of urban social theory, debates still persist around the definition of two key concepts for the discipline: the city and the urban. Although this has not been a problem for the development of empirical research on cities, it is interesting to recover these divergences in order to problematize the way in which urban phenomena are defined and, consequently, interpreted. Thus, in this article I propose to deepen the epistemological debates on the city and the urban, based on the dialogue between critical urbanism and urbanism of assemblages. For this purpose, the exchanges carried out between Neil Brenner, Colin McFarlane and Ignacio Farías during 2009 and 2011 in different academic journals are recovered. The contribution of this article is to continue introducing to the debate on the city and the urban the proposal of urbanism of assemblages, which poses a challenge to the foundations of conventional urban criticism, introducing a conceptual framework that brings with it a significant epistemological shift for urban studies. The urbanism of urban assemblages proposed by Farias (2011b) is distinguished by its attention to the city as a continuous process of composition and recomposition, where multiple human and non-human actors interact and intertwine to shape complex and dynamic urban environments. While critical urban theory also refers to the city as product and production, and not as a finished object, assemblage urbanism radicalizes this reading by including the notion of composition, which opens up the range of actors and agencies involved in urban formations.

Passionate Women, Vengeful Spirits: Female Ghosts and the Japanese Gothic Mode

Abstract Female phantasms of the living and the dead that appear in Japanese folklore and literature involve a dual image of women: the representation of a patriarchal ideal of women, and the monstrous double that revolts against that ideal. Representations of this folklore-inspired ideal/monstrous woman can be seen in a wide-ranging array of twentieth and twenty-first century Japanese fiction, from the early cannibalistic spirits in folklore-inspired tales to Romantic and Absurdist works to possession narratives. This essay builds upon extant research from folklorists and cultural anthropologists as well as critical literary theories on the appearance of ghosts in Japanese fiction. I assert that certain feminine ghostly presences in twentieth century Japanese literature may be termed an expression of Globalgothic, especially through ghost stories that demonstrate the subordination of women and their subversive acts via implementation of the supernatural.

From Methodological Authoritarianism to Epistemic Realism: Multidisciplinary Research Paradigms and the Post-modern Turn

The 20th century was characterized by a radical paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism. Postmodernism rejected the stances of objectivism, universalism and the construction of meta-narratives that were evident in the modern epoch. Postmodernism re-affirms subjectivism, perspectivism and particularism in knowledge attribution, acquisition and justification. Postmodernism therefore dethrones positivism, radical empiricism and all their objectivistic scientific edifices. Post-modernism has its roots in post-colonialism, de-colonialism and the agitations for racial and gender justice. This academic masterpiece used critical historical analysis, critical hermeneutics, decolonial and postcolonial criticism to situate postmodernism as an emancipatory philosophy of method that safeguards marginalized modes of knowledge in the South from the epistemicide of Western Positivism. The paper analytically illuminated that postmodern epistemological ethos leads to the emergence of post-positivism in the natural sciences and interpretivism in the humanities and social sciences by propagating deconstructionist and emancipatory multi-disciplinary methodologies such as critical discourse analysis, phenomenological interpretation, critical race theory and critical gender theory. This paper further argued that multi-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity are inevitable constellations of the eminent emergency of the postmodern epoch. The paper adds to knowledge by painstakingly contending that postmodernism entrenches situated knowledge and multidisciplinary methodologies that are equally valid, reliable, cogent and credible. Keywords: Methodology, Realism, Authoritarianism, Multidisciplinary, Postmodernism

Reception of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Works Among Chinese Readers

Existing research on the reception of Fyodor Dostoevsky's works in China primarily focuses on the academic reception history, with limited attention paid to ordinary readers on the internet. This study employs the qualitative analysis software NVivo 12 to analyze comments from ordinary readers on Douban. By integrating Stanley Fish's reader-response criticism and Stuart Hall's reception theory, the study identifies three distinct reader reception models and analyzes their influencing factors. Faithful fans, influenced by the Russian classical literature horizon of expectations, offer highly positive evaluations. Rational evaluators exhibit a complex attitude of both criticism and appreciation, driven by their rational stance and cultural aesthetic differences. Critics, encounter frustration in their expectations due to conflicts between their local aesthetic perspectives and the works. This study broadens the scope of audience in the reception research of Dostoevsky's works in China, revealing the diversity and complexity of ordinary readers' reception, and provides important insights for cross-cultural reader studies.

Dismantling amatonormative biases and expanding queer-affirmative psychotherapy: The role of trainers.

The present article aims to provide a pathway for trainers to expand and transform queer-affirmative psychotherapy practice to be more inclusive of queer groups that are underdiscussed in research and misunderstood in therapy settings, namely, people who are asexual, aromantic, and polyamorist. The article begins by outlining findings from a small but growing body of literature focusing on people who identify as asexual, aromantic, and polyamorist, which suggests that these populations face unique challenges and forms of discrimination when navigating their relationships, identity, and community. At the same time, these groups also report negative experiences of psychotherapy, including ignorance, minimization, and lack of understanding empathy on part of therapists. Such gaps may be bridged through cultural and structural changes in the way in which queer-affirmative psychotherapy models are disseminated in training contexts. Building upon models of queer-affirmative psychotherapy, critical theory, and queer theory, the article proposes steps that trainers may take to encourage students to expand their queer-affirmative practice so that it is more inclusive of and responsive to the experiences of asexual, aromantic, and polyamorist populations. The steps involve (a) cultivating criticality among trainees, (b) holding space for "not knowing," (c) providing diverse case examples, and (d) underlining advocacy as central and necessary to queer-affirmative practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).