Sociopolitical Consciousness Research Articles

Impact of FM Radio on Political Awareness and Engagement among University Students: A Socio-Political Study

This research examines the role of FM radio in shaping the awareness and engagement about politics among university students in Lahore, by focusing on the influence of socio-political aspects. The study purposes to recognize the history of FM radio and its effectiveness to address the socio-political issues. The sample size of 600 students between the ages of 18 and 32 from three private universities of Lahore (University of South Asia, University of Management and Technology, Superior University). The statistics were attained by the technique of purposive sampling; the research finds that FM radio upholds a noteworthy occurrence in spite of the rise of new media. The majority of people listen to FM radio for entertainment, information, education, and development. The findings show that FM radio is an effective medium for raising socio-political awareness and encouraging political connection among youngsters.

Claiming Space for Oneself: Feminist Reading of Smriti Ravindra's The Woman Who Climbed Trees

The Woman Who Climbed Trees (2023) by Smriti Ravindra is a soul-stirring novel that showcases the miserable plight of women in a society governed by males. Marriage, gender discrimination, power relations between male and female, and toils of women in the family lead to their confinement within the frameworks staked out for them by men. Women suffer, are subjugated and subordinated, and are yet indispensible for running the family, where they are pulled by the traditional roles trusted upon her. But women's access to education, employment, and socio political awareness has helped them achieve personhood. They no longer want to be connected to and defined by the societal and cultural norms of the patriarchal structure. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to examine and explore the theme of how women in the novel make resistance, claim space for themselves, and search for their identity. Through the lives of three women across different generations, Kaveri, Meena, and Priti, the novelist beautifully captures the complexities of love, acceptance, estrangement, and self-discovery, highlighting the evolution of self-assertion. The novel serves as a poignant exploration of human experience, anchored by protagonists, whose journeys serve as a microcosm of broader societal dynamics. Applying feminism as a research framework, this study delves into the protagonist’s journey of self-discovery and her challenges to patriarchal constraints. The analysis elucidates how the women in the novel navigate and resist a male-dominated social labyrinth.

‘It’s not a me thing’: the role of transcendence and critical politics in Black LGBTQ wellness in Montreal

This study explores well-being strategies and challenges for Black LGBTQ individuals in Montreal, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between March and May 2023 with key informants, or advocates and service providers for LGBTQ communities in the Montreal metropolitan area. Thematic analysis was used and involved transcription, memo-writing and a multi-step, inductive coding process using MAXQDA. The findings highlight three areas of well-noted challenges for Black LGBTQ individuals: systemic barriers; lack of targeted support; and challenges to accessing services. Two strategic domains emerged as innovative approaches to support well-being: transcendental practices and intersectional sociopolitical awareness raising. Transcendental practices, ranging from fine arts and dance to reiki energy healing, offered avenues for healing and community-building. Intersectional sociopolitical awareness was described as crucial in informing and contributing to existing efforts to improve well-being such as therapeutic engagement with clients and facilitating mutual aid. The identified transcendental practices and political awareness offer promising avenues for holistic well-being and comprehensive approaches to challenges such as inequitable HIV burden. Recognising the convergence of identities and social power axes can inform future interventions to foster more inclusive and empowering health strategies for Black LGBTQ communities.

Arrebatos and institutionalized barriers encountered by low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students at Hispanic‐Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs

AbstractBackgroundLatinos/as/xs continue to face many barriers as they pursue engineering degrees, including remedial placement, lack of access to well‐funded schools, and high poverty rates. We use the concept of arrebatos to describe the internal reckoning that Latino/a/x engineering students experience through their journeys, particularly focusing on the impact of socioeconomic inequalities.PurposeTo bring counternarratives in engineering education research focusing on the experiences and lived realities of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students. These counternarratives are an important step in interrogating systemic biases and exclusionary cultures, practices, and policies at HSIs and emerging HSIs and within engineering programs.MethodsPláticas were conducted with 22 Latino/a/x engineering undergraduates from four different universities in the US Southwest. These pláticas were coded and analyzed drawing from Anzaldúa's theoretical concept of el arrebato. Special attention was given to participants' arrebatos triggered by their college experiences as low‐income individuals.ResultsAnalysis indicates that Latino/a/x engineering students' arrebatos arise from events that shake up the foundation of their own identity, including an institutional lack of sociopolitical consciousness. This lack of consciousness becomes evident not only in individuals' attitudes toward these students but also in institutional policies that put them at a further disadvantage.ConclusionsFindings have implications for engineering programs, particularly at HSIs and emerging HSIs regarding the creation of policies and practices that aim to secure the retention of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students and alleviate the systemic barrier they face by affirming the practice of servingness.

A Case for the Use of Open Data as a Tool to Incorporate Socioscientific Topics into Neuroscience Education.

Education scholars have called for an increased focus on developing curricula based on culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995). A key tenet of Ladson-Billings' (1995; 2014) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy is the development of students' sociopolitical consciousness, whereby students feel empowered and encouraged to evaluate and solve real-world interdisciplinary problems. Here, we propose that open science datasets could serve as a valuable tool for neuroscience educators to foster their students' sociopolitical consciousness. Using the open data available through the Seattle Alzheimer's Disease Brain Cell Atlas (SEA-AD) as a case study, this article will explore how open science can be leveraged as a tool to encourage socioscientific thinking amongst neuroscience students. We overview a collection of lessons created by the Allen Institute's Education & Engagement team that provides a scaffolded exploration of an open science resource through a socioscientific lens. We supplement our discussion of the lessons with feedback from students who completed the lessons during a day-long workshop hosted at the Allen Institute in Seattle, WA. We conclude by reflecting on the future role this type of interdisciplinary, open science-based approach to curricula could have across neuroscience education more broadly.

Latinx Youth as Linguistic Experts: Documenting Translanguaging Moments in Youth Participatory Action Research

ABSTRACT Drawing on Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and translanguaging frameworks, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate how Latinx youth leverage their community knowledge and language practices in community-based research. Through a multimodal and ethnographic examination of the students engagement in youth-driven research this article highlights how language is central to the expertise they cultivate of their everyday socio-political worlds. Findings showcase how the youth in this study drew on their linguistic expertise alongside their community knowledge and sociopolitical awareness to make sense of the various components of the research process. Further, they document translingual practices that are reflective of the lived realities and of the multilingualism located within their community. Engaging in translingual practices throughout the YPAR project reflected authentic, joyful, and critical practices of meaning making throughout their inquiry. Implications for this study include co-designing linguistically transformative spaces for youth and the importance of recognizing the community knowledge and experience that shapes their linguistic practices.

Portrayal of Socio-Political Consciousness in Dalits in Reference to Sharad Poudel’s Tapan

The article attempts to explore the socio-political consciousness in Dalits for their rights, equality and liberation. Fundamentally, the article studies Sharad Poudel’s social novel “Tapan” (2073 BS) from the Marxist concept of class consciousness connecting with Dalit consciousness. For this purpose, the researcher collects and uses the various criticism and literature to explore how the Dalit literary texts portray the Dalit issues, problems, political and economic disparity, their protest and resolutions based on theoretical and critical analysis. The select novel’s plots, characters and the major themes also reflect the socio-political consciousness in Dalits. Moreover, the article explores that class consciousness develops within the characters and they stand together in the same mission and set goal for their liberation. And, the ideologies and political consciousness make them more responsible for their people and society. The novel as Dalit literature depicts multiple-layers of socio-economic, cultural and political problems of Dalits and their protests against it. The researcher employs the qualitative methods with descriptive and analytical approach.

Democratic education in superdiverse schools in Aotearoa New Zealand

One of the greatest challenges facing democracies is how to live together with difference. The growth of globalisation and international migration has presented schools with increased opportunities and challenges related to learning from and living with superdiversity. Yet within current policy settings and educational practices, the alignment between superdiversity and democratic education is not explicitly foregrounded. In this paper I examine how teachers (n = 24) from four superdiverse secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand’s responded to growing cultural, linguistic and religious diversity in their classrooms. By examining empirical evidence from teacher’s practices, the paper illustrates how Dewey’s philosophy of learning by living together with difference, placing a priority on shared interests and developing a socio-political awareness of inequalities provides valuable insights for democratic education. The study illustrates the importance of recognising the complexity of interactions in superdiverse contexts and the significant role that teachers can play in creating conditions for inclusive classrooms where democracy can be lived and learned. It also highlights how teachers themselves, can undergo a journey toward developing more inclusive and justice-oriented pedagogical practices that support both Indigenous and ethnic minority groups in their schools.

The Role of Students in Guarding the Constitution and Building Awareness and Optimism of Legal Politics

Students play professional and appropriate roles in society and education as intellectuals and value-added members of society. The purpose of this study is to identify the role of students in protecting the constitution and the role of students in building socio-political awareness and optimism. The research method used in this study is theoretical research, using conceptual methods and legal methods. In preparing this article, the author used Google Schoolar to put library resources online. The conclusion of this study is that upholding the Constitution is not only the task of the Constitutional Court or a few special individuals and institutions, but also of students. Therefore, students must not only play the role of defenders of the Constitution, but also integrate the character of young intellectuals. This oversight may be accomplished in a variety of ways, including through student submission of judicial reports. How important it is for students to work to build public trust in politics. One of the most serious problems for our country and nation today is the issue of public trust in politics.

‘Decolonising socio-political consciousness': second-generation LGBTQIA + South Asian experiences of finding the self and community in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT Second-generation LGBTQIA + South Asians in Aotearoa New Zealand remain overlooked in mainstream queer discourse, with their identities inaccurately amalgamated with the broader LGBTQIA + community. Despite significant differences influenced by historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts, this population's experiences are often ignored. In early 2022, we conducted a community consultation to uncover these unique experiences, yielding 43 narratives through semi-structured interviews. This paper explores the interconnection between the sense of self, community, and the formation of identities. The complex and non-linear nature of these processes is particularly evident for second-generation LGBTQIA + individuals in the South Asian diaspora. The pursuit of a secure and authentic identity becomes arduous and compromising due to societal norms. We show that the intricate shaping of identities through the multifaceted lens of relationality offers a particular kind of socio-political consciousness.

Getting critical with compelling questions: Shifts in elementary teacher candidates’ curriculum planning from inquiry to critical inquiry

ABSTRACT While recognized as a foundational practice, social studies educators struggle with enacting inquiry-based instruction. With critical inquiries that examine sociopolitical and other injustices, developing aligned compelling questions represents a challenge, particularly for elementary teachers. Informed by four lenses of criticality from social studies scholarship, this design-based mixed methods research follows 28 elementary teacher candidates from two universities and regions as they formulated compelling questions for critical inquiry units together. Data sources included audio transcriptions of group discussions, course assignments, curriculum planning documents, and reflections. Qualitative and quantitative findings show that candidates created more critical questions with the intervention scaffold, suggesting a new criterion for determining open questions: identifying ongoing issues of empirical injustice. Most still struggled with identifying implicated social groups and clarifying relationships of interdependence. Group members’ positional awareness of sociopolitical identities appeared to support more critical collective question design trajectories through understandings of structure, agency, and place relative to the content. Results suggest the importance of scaffolding critical inquiry question development—with special care to support teacher candidates’ sociopolitical consciousness, and consider their and K-12 students’ implicated identities in power systems, situated in specific teaching contexts.

Space for Play: A History of Hong Kong Playgrounds

This article explores playgrounds in Hong Kong over a century and a half of the city’s history. Drawing on media publications, governmental resources, and past and present accounts of the history of the city, we document how the planning, design, and construction of playgrounds in Hong Kong have been fundamentally influenced by political, bureaucratic, and pedagogical practices, as well as by the class, ethnic, and cultural composition of the city. We sketch the broader political shifts in Hong Kong’s evolution under British and more recently Chinese rule bringing specific attention to how these forces have shaped spaces of play in the city. Through this text, we use playgrounds as a lens through which to explore Hong Kong’s past, politics, and urban space, as well as its cultural and socio-political consciousness.

“Thinking Like an Activist”: Preservice Teachers Make Sense of the Past

History education holds strong potential for students to examine how racism and other intersecting forms of oppression embedded within U.S. institutions have and still impact today’s social fabric. When rooted in Martell and Stevens’ “thinking like an activist” framework, history education provides opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to see, understand, and disrupt the dominant narrative. They can begin to reimagine their roles as future leaders in the classroom and beyond to ensure that all students thrive and not just survive. Thus, for this qualitative study, we engaged our PST in a book study of A Different Mirror for Young People: A History for Multicultural America. Through intentional content and pedagogical choices, we investigated the question, “ How do preservice teachers make sense of history using the ‘thinking like an activist’ framework?” Findings indicated how Takaki’s different mirror, as a counternarrative centering the perspectives and experiences of historically marginalized groups, allowed PSTs 1) to unlearn oppressive structures (cultural preparation), 2) begin to develop a sociopolitical consciousness of systemic oppression, albeit through an outsider’s perspective (critical analysis), and 3) to analyze how collective action in the past enacted change–although through an already, but not yet, understanding of their role in social change in the present (collective action).

“Harriet Tubman is a Superhero”: Conceptualizing Young African American Children's Sociopolitical Awareness as Imaginative Praxis

Imagination is often relegated to the margins of African American children's schooling experiences. Furthermore, the varied role of children in liberation struggles and their centrality in ushering in just futures remain underexplored. This article examines five African American first graders’ sociopolitical knowledge and how they used their imagination to develop counternarratives of refusal and agentic possibilities. I offer imaginative praxis as a conceptual tool to analyze how young African American children name historical and contemporary racialized realities and generate joyful visualizations of actionable resistance. Young children's imaginative praxis challenges the notion that the fight for liberation is void of joy.

Good soil: The community cultural wealth of Black Seventh-day Adventist schools through the lens of Black males

Research concerning Black-led schools has centered around Black public schools prior to desegregation. Much of the data concerning these institutions is dated and the empirical data is limited concerning Black education under Black leadership. The data has found that Black schools under Black leadership had high-quality teachers, elevated principals as community leaders, rigorous academic standards, and developed a socio-political consciousness. However, there is limited knowledge concerning contemporary religious Black schools. This study fills this research gap by utilizing Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis on the reflections of Black males who attended contemporary Black-led Seventh-day Adventist schools. This study found that these Black-led Seventh-day Adventist schools served as producers of four distinct forms of capital. These four forms of capital are navigational, aspirational, religious, and joy.

Mapping teachers’ perspectives on culturally responsive pedagogy in mathematics: from academic achievement to insights and opportunities

ABSTRACT Following the seminal work of Gloria Ladson-Billings, research on culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) has, in recent years, expanded significantly. Ladson-Billings proposes three elements of CRP: academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. Nevertheless, in mathematics education research on CRP, the sociopolitical consciousness element is often under-explored or even absent. This paper began as an investigation of how Ladson-Billings’ three elements could be used to examine prospective and practicing teachers’ (PPTs') perspectives on CRP, prior to their participation in a professional development course on CRP in the mathematics classroom. Thirty-one participants from three separate offerings of the course responded in writing to a set of open questions about CRP (in general and in mathematics). Thematic data analysis pointed to the complexities of categorising the data based primarily on Ladson-Billings’ three elements. In addition, our analysis indicated five components underpinning participants’ responses: challenges; opportunities; fears; resistance; insights. We conclude with a revised conceptualisation of CRP for mathematics teacher education programmes aimed at supporting PPTs’ development of their CRP-related knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

An Exploration of Beginning Science Teacher Orientations Toward Social Justice: “What Does It Mean to Teach?”

ABSTRACT In this exploratory qualitative case study, we sought to develop a better understanding of beginning teachers’ (Scholars) ideas about justice-oriented science teaching. Data were collected from participants from the same secondary teacher education program with an overarching mission of social justice. The study spanned two academic years, including a one-year Master of Education program and the first year of teaching. Data sources included periodic semi-structured individual interviews, lesson plans, and written reflections. Findings are presented as chronological themes indicating: 1) Scholars used their own identities as a starting point for constructing their justice-oriented practice; 2) Scholars’ learning about social justice in science education varied based upon their initial teaching goals; and 3) as first-year teachers, Scholars struggled to enact their justice-oriented goals within the classroom, which enhanced their sociopolitical awareness. The implications of this study point to attending to prospective teachers’ science epistemologies and promoting critique of science and science education, as well as awareness of the simultaneity of identities they bring to the teaching of science to achieve the transformative goals of justice-oriented science education.

A critical literacy class: beyond English learning and teaching in Higher Education

Abstract This article aims at analyzing the introduction of Critical Literacy as a transformative teaching approach in an English language teaching setting at tertiary level in Turkey. Applying a Freirian understanding of education, the method sought to tap the sociopolitical consciousness brought into the classroom by students and teachers and co-construct knowledge collectively while contributing to identity formation and social transformation. Both learners and teachers were encouraged to relate the curriculum to their own diverse experiences and to analyze broader social issues that are relevant to their lives and to wider contexts. Consequently, such issues as curriculum, language teaching and learning environment, materials and language policies were scrutinized from a critical perspective as part of the language learning and teaching process taking place in the classroom. The findings of this research provide significant insights for language learning and teaching praxis and show how Critical Literacy as a teaching method can contribute to the creation of more meaningful and supportive learning environments in classrooms and suggest empowering interactions among the actors involved.

Resistance Testimonios for Reclaiming Teaching Instruction and Assessment Practices: Holistic Narratives of Bilingual Latinx Youths’ Knowledge Through Long-Term Relationships

ABSTRACT This study, informed by Chicana Feminist frameworks, explores bilingual Latinx students’ resistance testimonios pertaining to instruction and assessment. These testimonios transpired through pláticas [familiar gatherings] between adolescent youth and the author, also their former elementary school teacher. This study is contextualized within historical and current ways white supremacy impacts education for bilingual Latinx students. Reviews of the literature show how standardized testing does not always capture a full narrative of bilingual Latinx students’ knowledge. While educators cannot dismantle all the limited ways of assessing students at once, this article adds to the scholarship on how teachers can build long-term relationships to mend these sources of harms. The past relationship, between the students and the author, helped establish plática spaces, where they collectively reflected on the ways instructional and assessment practices hurt or dismissed their communities. In the pláticas, students enriched their sociopolitical consciousness by pushing and pulling each other to share their lives. Assembling their collective testimonios reveals alternatives to understanding what bilingual Latinx students know. Remembering with, listening to, and assembling students’ testimonios collectively over time offers how educators might build longer lasting and broader relationships, for a broader, more expansive holistic understanding of Latinx students’ experiences in school. Educators must collaborate together, as there is a critical opportunity for reclaiming instructiom and assessment practices.

The Power of Laughter: A Study of the Comedies of Badal Sircar

Comedy, unlike tragedy, is often overlooked as a lower form of art and less important. But comedy plays crucial role in entertaining as well as making people aware of real-life issues. Badal Sircar (1925-2011) is a widely recognized playwright of post-independence Indian theatre. While there is much scholastic focus and discussion on his absurd dramas and Third Theatre plays, his comedies have been mostly overlooked and have rarely drawn critical attention. By filling this gap in existing literature, the present research establishes the significance and value of Sircar’s comedies. It analyses situational pure comedies as well as black comedies from both the proscenium and the non-proscenium phases, namely Solution X, Boro Pisima, Shanibar, Ram Shyam Jadu, Ballabhpurer Rupkatha, Kabikahini, Bichitranushthan, Jadi Ar Ekbar, Abu Hossain, Hattamalar Oparey, Bagalacharit-manas, and Khat Mat Kring. While giving relief to the daily routines of the audience, Sircar presents serious matters in non-serious ways that simultaneously compel them to think about the surrounding worlds and grave issues (capitalist exploitation, corrupt politicians and hypocritical nature of political parties, dowry deaths, nuclear holocaust, unemployment, middle class aspirations and frustration in life, Brahmans-Dalits conflict, social changes, etc.). The study asserts that comedy cannot be merely dismissed as a non-serious art having no social purpose, but it can prove itself to be a powerful tool in raising socio-political awareness.