Critical Consciousness Flashcards
What is critical consciousness?
How oppressed or marginalized people learn to critically analyze their social conditions and act to change them
So 2 aspects: being aware + act
With time, the “being aware” part was broken down into 2 aspects, what are these?
Reflection (process of learning) + Motivation (perceived capacity + commitment)
There are multiple ways to see the relation between the 3 dimensions of critical consciousness (reflection, motivation, action), what are different perspectives on it
1st perspective: Reflection leads to more motivation, leads to more action
2nd perspective: Any of the dimensions might come first. For example, action could lead to more reflection, which could lead to more motivation
What are the 4 distinct profiles of Black Youth?
- Precritical Bystander (average reflection but not much action)
- Liberated Actor (a lot of reflection + action)
- Precritical Actor (not much reflection but a lot of action)
- Acritical Bystander (could not reflect less + not much action)
Which profile is the most common among Black Youth?
Precritical Bystander (around 63%)
What are the 3 main factors that may lead to more action among youth?
- Discrimination (to cope or to make sure not one else will go through that)
- Ethnic-racial socialization (like being taught about histories of resistance against oppression)
- Ethnic-racial identity (centrality of your race + pride might lead you to be more motivated to do things in favor of your group)
What were the results of the study looking to see if what are differences between liberated actors and precritical groups (precritical actor + precritical bystander)?
- Liberated actors had higher centrality and pride than precritical groups
- Liberated actors had more stress from exposure to cultural racism (like racism in media) compared to all other groups
What group was the lowest in cultural socialization from parents (not getting a lot of messages growing up around group history)?
Precritical actors
They are engaging in action, but as they didn’t get socialization around group history, values, traditions, low in reflection and motivation.
What are other precursors to action?
- Parental civic modeling (parents are active)
- Critical consciousness / political socialization
- Intergroup dialogue (being exposed to experiences that are different than yours. Promotes allyship and solidarity)
Describe white guilt
Feeling bad about situations in which White people were clearly advantaged over people of color
Describe social responsibility
Do you feel responsible for improving your community, the world?
Describe civic efficacy
Do you feel like you have the ability to make change?
For individuals that have medium and high social responsability, higher ___ ___ leads to more action
White Guilt
For individuals that have medium and high civic efficacy, higher ___ ___ leads to more action
White Guilt
White guilt is associated with ___ action for people low in social responsibility
Less
True or False: For individuals that are low in civic efficacy, guilt is not associated with action
True.
They don’t feel like they can make a change.
True or False: Overall, white guilt always leads to more action.
False.
It can exacerbate or diminish the impact of your social responsibility and efficacy on action.
For example, HIGHER white guilt is associated with LESS action for people who are low in social responsibility.
What could be facilitators of youth action?
- bigger network, social connections
- innovative with media
- more time, less responsabilities
What could be potential barriers to youth’s engagement in critical action
- social structures (age to vote)
- agism (judgement from older gen)
- lack of autonomy (driver’s license)
- social acceptability - peer acceptance
Results of study looking for growth in dimensions of critical consciousness in activist youth?
No growth in motivation, reflection and action from start of study to the end.
What could be explanations for why we don’t we see increases in any dimensions of critical consciousness among youth activists?
- not a huge range (2 years)
- already involved = not growing that much more
If we look at a general sample of teens, how are the results different than activists, regarding trajectories of dimensions of critical consciousness?
They are more likely to increase, especially if high levels of hope.
What are the results of the study that looked at how the development of critical reflection may differ by race/ethnicity?
From 6th to 10th grade: reflection increased in Black, Latinx and Asian youth BUT not for White
What is the general idea that needs to be kept in mind from different studies on the development of critical consciousness?
- CC tends to increase across youth & adolescence, but different dimensions develop independently from one another
- Speed and strength of growth may depend on things like hope & race/ethnicity
