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Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness

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Critical consciousness: current status and future directions.

Roderick J Watts¹, Matthew A Diemer, Adam M Voight

¹Hunter College and the Graduate Center at City University of New York, USA. rwatts@gc.cuny.edu

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development

|December 8, 2011

Summary

This chapter explores Paulo Freire's critical consciousness (CC) concept for youth political and civic development. It identifies key components and research, advocating for its greater integration into understanding and addressing youth social change.

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Area of Science:

Sociology
Education
Political Science

Background:

Paulo Freire's critical consciousness (CC) offers a framework for understanding societal structures and individual roles within them.
Liberation education and similar pedagogical approaches emphasize egalitarian, empowering, and interactive methods for social change.
Marginalized youth frequently encounter structural injustices, making CC highly relevant to their development.

Purpose of the Study:

To advocate for increased attention to critical consciousness (CC) in research and discourse on youth political and civic development.
To identify and elaborate on the core components of CC derived from Freire's work and related scholarship.
To highlight existing research and applied work that exemplifies CC principles in youth development.

Main Methods:

Literature review of Paulo Freire's construct of critical consciousness (CC).
Analysis of related scholarship in liberation education and youth civic engagement.
Synthesis of research and applied work demonstrating CC components.

Main Results:

Three core components of CC were identified: critical reflection, political efficacy, and critical action.
Promising research and innovative applied work, including youth action-research, were highlighted.
The relevance of CC to addressing structural injustice faced by marginalized youth was emphasized.

Conclusions:

Critical consciousness (CC) is a vital but underutilized framework for youth political and civic development.
Further research and theoretical development are needed to close critical gaps in CC theory and application.
Integrating CC principles can empower youth to critically analyze and act upon societal injustices.