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Critical Consciousness Lesson Plan Template

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Critical Consciousness Lesson Plan Template

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If you are not following her Twitter, you are seriously missing out! The incredible judy mckeown is an Equity Resource teacher in the Peel District School Board and frequently shares her resources online. Earlier this month , she shared her Critical Consciousness Lesson Plan Template and once again, I was reminded why I so appreciate the work that she does. In this post, I'm going to be digging into this resource and reflecting on some of the questions from the template.

I'm certain that we all remember lesson planning at the Faculty of Education. The tedious work of planning out each part of every lesson and the pages upon pages that you were going to share with your Associate Teacher. I know for me, my favourite part was finding my hook or the minds on but was often unsure of where the lesson might go from there. While I had my plan in mind, I found it difficult to include what I might say or specifics on our consolidation of the lesson because you never know how students might engage with the material. I remember one associate teacher who wanted to know my script for each lesson and it terrified me to think about what if I went off-script. Over the years, I changed the way I visualized my lessons and honestly got rid of the lesson plans that were pages long.

When I saw judy's Critical Consciousness Lesson Plan Template, I immediately thought of the 3-part lessons we might be familiar with but what blew me away were the questions contained within. In every section, there are deep and meaningful questions that guide you in developing lessons that are truly student-centred. As if that wasn't incredible enough, the checklist on the right really prompted me to think about how this lesson relates to social issues potentially affecting students and others in the world around us. Below I share my thoughts on a question posed in each section.
Learning Goals: How have you involved students in determining these goals?
This question is huge! When I think about learning goals, I think of taking them from the curriculum and turning the words into student-friendly language. Ultimately, it's me looking at what they "need" to learn; deciding what we'll be learning at that particular point in time; and posting it for them, in hopes that they understand where they are going. Upon reflection, this in no way involves students in determining these goals. Imagine the difference that could be had if students understood what they "had to learn" from the curriculum and were a part of determining what they felt ready to tackle and how this new learning might connect to recent or past learning. How might this change the learning process for that group of students? How might this also connect to student interest in terms of subject areas?
Materials: What will you need to provide for your students to create the best conditions for learning?
I consider this often when doing Science experiments in order to make sure that I have everything that I need but what about materials or resources needed for other subject areas? We know that resources are often limited in some schools. How might we get creative in using math manipulatives to help students take ideas from concrete to abstract? What are ways in which we can work together to ensure that what is available creates the best conditions for student-centred learning? How do we create environments for students to be able to retrieve materials that are readily available, when they need them, without fear of being looked at as different?
Before: Minds On: Before starting your lesson, what conditions have you created so that students will have the skills needed to engage in the learning in both meaningful and respectful ways?
It can't just be me, but this question wowed me. I know that many times, I have walked into lessons making assumptions of what students should know without making sure that I have prepared them with what they need in order to succeed in the action portion of the lesson. I'm not saying that we automatically jump into big, brand new learning with expectations, but often there are things that I expect a Grade 5 student to be able to know, without making sure that they do know it, which leads to frustration on their part with learning new material. How different might the experience be if I really sat down and made sure that what I was planning was learning that they were ready to engage in? Might this involve extra time to make sure that there is success in the lesson? Yes and I think it would provide for deeper learning when we get there.
During: Action: Where will you create intentional pauses for students to think through and absorb their learning?
This is huge! When planning units, I think of intentional opportunities for students to reflect but within each lesson? I can't say that I do. The goal here isn't for students to reflect and to show the teacher what they are learning but it's for them to be able to absorb their own learning. To make sense of it. To process it and understand what it means for them. This might look different for every child. Some may write. Others may draw. Others may enjoy the opportunity to talk things through with peers. How might we slow down and offer more of these opportunities along the learning journey? How might this lead to an overall richer learning experience for our students?
After: Debrief and Consolidation: How can you build in ways for students to direct how the lesson is debriefed?
Another great question that takes me back to the question for the learning goals. I wonder if this is something that we talk about from the beginning? As a facilitator of the learning, I wonder how we can help students to think about different ways of debriefing or consolidating the learning. I know that many are used to gallery walks or whole group discussions, but what if we allowed students to share their ideas on methods that work best for them? Sure, it might not necessarily turn out the way in which we envisioned our lesson plan or what we think students would "get" out of the lesson but I think it could be incredible to authentically see what students have learned and have them share that with peers.
Extension: Next Steps: How can you also find ways to follow the lead of your students and support them in the action(s) they wish to take?
I've always thought that the sweet spot for authentic learning is at the intersection of the curriculum and real-world experiences. When students are able to see the relevance in what is being learned, they are able to determine what, if any, action they may wish to take. This question isn't about us as teachers thinking about the direction or action we want to take lessons or projects but following our students and supporting them. This also reminds me that I don't need to be an expert in every issue but learning with and alongside my student is important in the role of supporter. I also love that this is more than just the lesson being over and done with in the classroom but more about thinking of using that learning for personal or social good.
Critical Consciousness Checklist: Include the material conditions and realities of your students' lives?
Although all of these questions are essential, this question stood out the most when I think of student-centred lesson planning. I also think that it is imperative for us to be conscious of the ways in which we bring in our bias about the realities of our students' lives, particularly when they are not our own. So much damage is caused when we think we know something about our students but haven't taken the time to listen to or understand members of our school community through their own sharing. By bringing the community into the classroom, and being open to learning from students and their families, we stand a better chance of creating spaces that are truly inclusive. When done correctly, I think this moves away from so much of the tokenism we see online to actually creating opportunities for students to show up as their whole selves within learning environments.

This post is really just the tip of the iceberg of this incredible template. Since reading it, my mind has been going about my own teaching practice. I know that I will be using the questions within to reflect and interrogate why I choose to do what I do within the classroom, in hopes of becoming a better teacher. Thanks for sharing this, judy!

Interested in finding more of judy's incredible resources online? Check out her . I promise you'll find some incredible resources that will help you reflect on your teaching practice and grow, if applied.

I'm an educator who loves integrating technology and mindfulness in the classroom. Through inquiry and design, I work with students who are engaged in meaningful learning opportunities; developing core competencies, while creating ways to make the world an even better place. View all posts by Arianna Lambert

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Critical Consciousness Lesson Plan Template

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If you are not following her Twitter, you are seriously missing out! The incredible judy mckeown is an Equity Resource teacher in the Peel District School Board and frequently shares her resources online. Earlier this month , she shared her Critical Consciousness Lesson Plan Template and once again, I was reminded why I so appreciate the work that she does.

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Crit Lit for Kids: From Critical Consciousness to Service Learning | Read Write Think

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Cultivating Critical Consciousness in the Classroom

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Cultivating Critical Consciousness in the Classroom

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At Facing History's inaugural Teaching for Equity and Justice summit in 2020, we had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Scott Seider and Dr. Daren Graves-two developmental psychologists committed to deepening communities' capacities to educate and care for Black and brown youth. Co-authors of Schooling for Critical Consciousness: Engaging Black and Latinx Youth in Analyzing, Navigating, and Challenging Racial Injustice , Seider and Graves shared a wealth of insights from their research on the importance of cultivating critical consciousness in the classroom and how to get started. Below are some excerpts from their presentation:

DG: We are building on the definition of critical consciousness that was laid out by Paulo Freire in his famous book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed ... For those who may not know, he was a Brazilian educational philosopher who worked with poor, rural Brazilians to help in a schooling process that was focused on helping disempowered, if not oppressed, folks use schooling as a means to become...change agents over their own condition and transform their own communities... And so in this highly politicized way of thinking about schooling and education, Freire defines critical consciousness as the ability to recognize oppressive social forces shaping society and to take action against them... In this famous quotation that people know from Freire, "we read the word to read the world." In other words... we gain functional literacy as a means to gain transformative literacy...

Critical consciousness is not a diversion from the outcomes many of us who are educators are interested in. There is a lot of empirical research that shows that higher critical consciousness is associated with higher self-esteem, higher political engagement, higher professional aspirations, academic engagement, even higher academic achievement . When they develop critical consciousness, young folks develop a resilience to forces whether they're institutional or personal... a protective armor against the things that would [lead us to] blame ourselves and not [see] that the systems that are in place are causing these things. And so being able to recognize these systems and be able to do something about it gives us resilience in the face of racism in general and then, of course, the psychosocial outcomes we're interested in as educators.

In terms of how Dr. Seider and I are conceptualizing critical consciousness, we are building off the work of Watts, Diemer and Voight who saw critical consciousness as having three components:

1. Social analysis: the ability to name and analyze social, political, and economic forces that contribute to inequity and inequality

2. Political agency: the belief that one has the capacity to affect social and political change, the feeling that if one wanted to make a change, they could do it

3. Social action: the wide range of activities that individuals engage in to challenge oppressive forces

So what does this mean? How do we study this? Our research question was what role can teachers and educators play in critical consciousness? We went to five different high schools in the Northeast [that were actively engaged in this work]...to explore a variety of pedagogical approaches. It was a longitudinal study and we collected both quantitative and qualitative data...

SS and DG: The book we wrote reports on each of these five different schools and the ways they foster young pupils' critical consciousness over the students' four years of high school. We would like to talk to you about four key practices that we observed and were found to have effects on different dimensions of young pupils' critical consciousness.

1. The young people were finishing high school with a greater and deeper understanding of systemic racism than their peers across the other schools... Every single ninth grader took a course in their ninth grade year called Social Engagement [where] the young people are introduced to a framework that was referred to as "the three eyes of oppression."

2. Students learning from students builds a culture in which the projects become more and more profound as more and more students are brought into the culture...

3. Schools that gave students opportunities to affect change within the school building...[fostered] feelings of political agency... Opportunities to affect change within your school community unequivocally impact your feelings of agency to affect changes in other communities...

4. Real-world assignments were another type of tool that coincides with developing students' capacity to be involved in social action... There are a lot of real-world assignments, opportunities for students to think about our country or their community and then take those issues and put them into action.

--

Facing History and Ourselves invites educators to access the rest of this conversation by viewing our on-demand webinar with Dr. Scott Seider and Dr. Darren Graves.

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Cultivating Critical Consciousness in the Classroom

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At Facing History's inaugural Teaching for Equity and Justice summits this summer, we had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Scott Seider and Dr. Daren Graves-two developmental psychologists committed to deepening communities' capacities to educate and care for Black and brown youth.

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National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)

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Building Critical Consciousness for Educational Equity

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Building Critical Consciousness for Educational Equity

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Building Critical Consciousness for Educational Equity | Nicole West-Burns, Ph.D. | TEDxOshawaED

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Defining Critical Consciousness and Its Importance in Education

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Defining Critical Consciousness and Its Importance in Education

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Defining Critical Consciousness and Its Importance in Education

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To understand the world, one of the most important tools is Critical Consciousness (CC). CC is a theory founded by the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, that focuses on achieving in-depth knowledge of social, political and economic structures in society to solve real world problems. But where do we…

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Critical Consciousness: A Key to Student Achievement

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Critical Consciousness: A Key to Student Achievement

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Black students can achieve at higher levels when schools teach them how to see, name, and challenge racial oppression.
Research has suggested that critical consciousness - the ability to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and the commitment to take action against these systems - can be a gateway to academic motivation and achievement for marginalized students. That was certainly the case for Terrence, a junior at One Vision High School and a participant in a school project to develop a podcast titled "Our City Today." Here's what Terrence said about his participation in this project:

I wanted opportunities to speak openly with my peers about the things that we see every day. Crime rates, drug rates, riots. I had the chance to put the past in conversation with the future. I watched a documentary that showed how police brutality and issues like that have been going on for a long time . . . [and that black] children back in the day didn't have the opportunity to come to a school like One Vision. I consider that a challenge. Sometimes I want to leave One Vision. Sometimes I want to leave so bad. But I know deep down in my heart why I'm here, so I buckle down and do my homework . . . I see the bigger picture.

A heightened critical consciousness helped Terrence commit to his schooling. Yet despite the benefits that critical consciousness development offers to students, little research has investigated how schools can develop black students' critical consciousness of racial oppression.

To help fill this gap, we studied five urban schools in the northeast that serve predominantly black student bodies and include critical consciousness development in their mission. (The names for all of the schools are pseudonyms.) Our longitudinal, mixed-methods study focused on the role schools can play in preparing youth of color to analyze, navigate, and challenge oppressive conditions in our society. Terrence was one of 50 black high school students in the class of 2017 whom we interviewed over the past three years.

A key theme emerging from these interviews is that black teenagers are attuned to the vast array of unjust structural forces operating in their communities, in society, and in their schools. Schools seeking to increase black students' academic achievement must directly address these relevant social forces. Otherwise, they're missing what Terrence calls "the bigger picture."
The case for critical consciousness
Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1970) conceived of critical consciousness while working with adult laborers in Brazil. Freire realized that inequality is sustained when the people most affected by it are unable to decode their social conditions. Freire proposed a cycle of critical consciousness development that involved gaining knowledge about the systems and structures that create and sustain inequity (critical analysis), developing a sense of power or capability (sense of agency), and ultimately committing to take action against oppressive conditions (critical action).

Contemporary research has found that critical consciousness not only expands young people's commitment to challenging pervasive injustice (Ginwright, 2010; Watts, Diemer, & Voight, 2011) but also increases academic achievement and engagement (Carter, 2008; O'Connor, 1997). In particular, school-based programming designed to foster critical consciousness has been shown to increase academic engagement and achievement (Cabrera et al., 2014; Cammarota, 2007; Dee & Penner, 2016) and enrollment in higher education (Rogers & Terriquez, 2013). In explaining these relationships, researchers have suggested that critical consciousness of oppressive social forces can replace feelings of isolation and self-blame for one's challenges with a sense of engagement in a broader collective struggle for social justice (Diemer et al., 2014; Ginwright, 2010). Research also suggests that a critical consciousness about racism, specifically, can motivate black students to resist oppressive forces through persisting in school and achieving in academics (Carter, 2008). This motivation is often fueled by a desire to prove wrong the stereotypes embedded in racist structures and institutions (Carter, 2008; Sanders, 1997). Terrence's reflection about the persistent institutional racism he saw in his community as a challenge to stay the course in school is an example of such "achievement as resistance."
Promising practices
Three strategies emerged from our study as promising practices schools can use to develop black students' critical consciousness and harness the connection between critical consciousness and student achievement.
#1. Teach the language of inequality.
A key component of critical consciousness is the ability to recognize inequality and injustice (Watts, Griffith, & Abdul-Adil, 1999). For black students to successfully work against the conditions that create barriers to their learning, they need to notice when these barriers are at play and be able to communicate and explain what they notice. For example, Terrence's participation in the "Our City Today" project gave him time and space to "see" his community and understand its challenges at a deeper level, and it also gave him access to language to explain what he noticed. Educators can support such development in their students by introducing a framework for analyzing inequity.

Make the Road Academy (MtRA), another high school in our study, introduced students to a framework for recognizing forms of racism in society. Students learned that racism can be transmitted in three ways: through interpersonal racism, racism that occurs between individuals, institutional racism, racism that is expressed by and through social and political institutions, and internalized racism, racist beliefs that marginalized groups hold against themselves. Teachers taught this framework, called The Three I's, over several lessons. In one lesson our research team observed, students practiced their comprehension of each of the forms of racism by reviewing examples of racism from their community:

Teacher: How about when TV personality Judge Joe Brown tells black children they will be criminals in the courtroom?

Student 1: I called it interpersonal because he's telling kids a stereotype.

Teacher: Exactly. Or when liquor stores are strategically placed on every corner in urban neighborhoods?

Student 2: I put institutional. They're placing liquor stores in urban neighborhoods so a lot of people will smoke and drink.

Teacher: What about blacks believing their hair isn't beautiful, so they buy "better" hair from other races?

Student 3: Institutional?

Student 4: Internalized oppression because society says that black people have coarse or knotty hair, and [some black women] believe it.

Teacher: [to clarify] When any race or group of people starts believing the stereotypes about them, this is internalized oppression.

Later, students were asked to diagram an urban neighborhood where racism was present and label each example with the appropriate "I" in the framework. Students drew a range of images:

A business advertising for a job indicating, "No blacks" (institutional racism);

A black student on a basketball court saying, "This is all I can do" (internalized racism); and

A police officer racially profiling a black motorist (interpersonal racism).

Offering students language to distinguish among different types of racism gave them a tool that helped them read the world. One MtRA student, Mason, explained:

In school, they're really teaching us how to be able to recognize it [racism] more. If you were to ask me a couple years back if I knew what internalized oppression was, I wouldn't be able to tell you 'cause I didn't know. But I know what it is now.

This clarity and language offer profound benefits. Oppression is easiest to sustain when the disenfranchised ignore it, miss it, or support it rather than resist it (Watts et al., 1999). Critical consciousness and the associated language of inequality make racial injustice visible. In schools, this visibility creates an opening for educators to discuss the role that social forces play in students' lives and in students' learning opportunities and outcomes.
#2. Create space to interrogate racism.
In addition to being able to recognize inequity and describe it, students need to understand the depths of inequality and the myriad forces that sustain it. Terrence described his new understanding of the long history of police brutality in the lives of black people as powerful learning. It provided him with the motivation to persist and excel academically. Recognizing that such consciousness about inequality could both deepen their students' academic motivation and ability to resist racial injustice, each school in our study used different practices to create spaces within students' everyday schoolwork to facilitate learning about race inequality.

At Leadership High School, for example, 11th- and 12th-grade students participated in a semester-long English seminar focused on the black experience (another was offered on the Latino experience). The seminars created a space within school for students to learn about issues of race and racial identity and better understand how racial inequity works systemically and in their own lives. In the Black Experience seminar, students read Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me (2015), a book that analyzes how black bodies are treated in the United States. After reading the book, the students discussed the underlying mindsets and systemic forces that contributed to the disregard for black bodies during slavery and continue to contribute to the persistent disregard for these bodies today. For most students in the class, who are navigating society in black skin, this conversation contributes to their understanding of their personal experiences with racial inequity.

Schools in our study also make time to discuss racial inequity that students see on the news, in social media, and in their communities. Following a series of protests in the community as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, the principal asked her faculty to allot time during morning advisory for students to discuss and reflect on the following three questions:

What systemic issues are in place in Baltimore that could have led to the riots?

What do you think Baltimore's response should be to the riots? What should the governor's response be? What should the federal response be?

What action steps do you think we must take as a society to address police brutality in the United States?

In this and other instances, the conversations were not a part of the intended schedule, yet educators recognized the importance of these events in students' lives and took advantage of the opportunity to develop students' critical consciousness. To truly integrate critical consciousness development into the work of school, schools need to be prepared to fold in these conversations spontaneously when the need arises.
#3. Teach students how to take action.
When people understand the social, economic, and political forces threatening their communities, they're more likely to engage in activities that challenge those forces (Ginwright, 2010). In a third school in our study, Community Academy, the humanities curriculum introduced students to historical and contemporary methods for resistance.

In a 9th-grade lesson on apartheid in South Africa, for example, students discussed the differences between civil disobedience and militant resistance and debated their respective effectiveness in social change efforts:

Teacher: OK, the setting is 1961. The Sharpeville massacre just happened. You're a member of the African National Congress, and you have to decide what to do.

Student 1: I said we should do militant resistance because [the protesters] tried to be peaceful, and it didn't work.

Student 2: My opinion is militant resistance. [The protesters] really touched the government on some basics like shutting off their power plant or attacking government buildings and power stations. But they were avoiding killing people. I feel like that's important because it was like sending the government a warning and getting their point across by hurting what the government really needed.

Student 3: I disagree because they're not going to listen to you if you're not peaceful.

Student 2: Well, I'm not saying violence is the key, but, in this case, it really was. You have to fight fire with fire on this one. [The police] was treating [the protesters] all unfair. And when they marched peacefully, [the police] was like, "We don't care." They spit in their face.

Student 4: I disagree because either way everyone dies, and that doesn't solve anything.

In this lesson, students were learning how resistance happens, as well as the possible implications of different types of resistance. Such lessons position students to act against inequity in thoughtful and strategic ways. For example, as a part of the Black Lives Matter movement, numerous students at Community Academy participated in a citywide walkout and protest. One student, Missy, clearly linked this experience to her learning about different types of social action in humanities class. As she explained:

First I was like, I don't know what me marching out here is gonna do 'cause they can't personally hear what I want to say. But like we learned in humanities, civil disobedience will actually get us to where we want to be if we do it without violence and with words.

Through such instruction, Community Academy shows students how to resist in ways that overcome racism as a barrier to success and that have positive long-term outcomes for both individuals and communities. Scholars suggest that understanding adaptive strategies of resistance leads students to identify academic achievement as part of a collective struggle (Carter, 2008).
Empowered to achieve
A robust body of scholarship makes clear that disparities in academic learning outcomes between black students and peers from other racial groups are directly linked to a wide array of structural injustices in the United States against the black community. These include biased housing policies, gaps in economic opportunities, the over-incarceration of black men and women, rampant police brutality, and the unequal allocation of resources to schools (Carter & Welner, 2013). As educators, we cannot claim to be concerned with closing academic gaps without taking seriously the question of how to give black students the language and skills they need to understand the social conditions working against them.

Nor can we ignore the profound social change and academic benefits of nurturing students' critical consciousness. Through providing a framework and a language for analysis, making space to talk about inequity, and teaching students how to take action, schools can integrate students' sociopolitical realities into their ongoing work and contribute to critical consciousness development.

At the end of his interview, Terrence shared something he claimed he had never told anyone before. "This project changed me," he said. His reaction isn't just the isolated narrative of one black student. It's reflective of the transformative possibilities of committing to critical consciousness development in schools.
References
Cabrera, N., Milem, J., Jaquette, O., & Marx, R. (2014). Missing the (student achievement) forest for all the (political) trees: Empiricism and the Mexican-American studies controversy in Tucson. American Educational Research Journal, 51 (6), 1084-1118.

Cammarota, J. (2007). A social justice approach to achievement: Guiding Latina/o students toward educational attainment with a challenging, socially relevant curriculum. Equity & Excellence in Education, 40 (1), 87-96.

Carter, D.J. (2008). Cultivating a critical race consciousness for African-American school success. Educational Foundations, 22 (1-2), 11-28.

Carter, P.L. & Welner, K. (2013). Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Coates, T. (2015). Between the world and me. New York, NY: Penguin Random House.

Dee, T. & Penner, E. (2016). The causal effects of cultural relevance: Evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum. CEPA Working Paper No. 16-01. https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/wp16-01-v201601.pdf

Diemer, M., Rapa, L., Park, C., & Perry, J. (2014). Development and validation of a critical consciousness scale. Youth & Society, 1-23.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder & Herder.

Ginwright, S. (2010). Black youth rising: Activism and racial healing in urban America. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

O'Connor, C. (1997). Dispositions toward collective struggle and educational resilience in the inner city: A case analysis of six African-American high school students. American Educational Research Journal, 34 (4), 593-629.

Rogers, J. & Terriquez, V. (2013). Learning to lead: The impact of youth organizing on the educational and civic trajectories of low-income youth. Los Angeles, CA: Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access.

Sanders, M.G. (1997). Overcoming obstacles: Academic achievement as a response to racism and discrimination. Journal of Negro Education, 66 (1), 83-93.

Watts, R., Diemer, M., & Voight, A. (2011). Critical consciousness: Current status and future directions. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 43-57.

Watts, R., Griffith, D., & Abdul-Adil, J. (1999). Sociopolitical development as an antidote for oppression: Theory and action. American Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 255-272.

Originally published in February 2017 Phi Delta Kappan 98 (5), 18-23. © 2017 Phi Delta Kappa International. All rights reserved.

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Critical consciousness: A key to student achievement - kappanonline.org

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Black students can achieve at higher levels when schools teach them how to see, name, and challenge racial oppression.

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Posted:

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

Critical consciousness, conceivably the pinnacle of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), often proves challenging for many teachers to implement, leading many to leave it out of their instructional practice. However, this practice of critical thinking is a tool for students and teachers to examine the world and provides context and relevance for students to feel empowered to envision possibilities in transformative ways.

In her groundbreaking article "But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy," Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings proposes that it is not "enough for students to choose academic excellence and remain culturally grounded if those skills and abilities represent only an individual achievement." She asserts that teachers who practice in a culturally relevant way must engage in the tenet of sociopolitical consciousness, also known as critical consciousness, which she describes as "the ability to take learning beyond the confines of the classroom using school knowledge and skills to identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems."
The role of curriculum, intervention, and assessment
This practice of sociopolitical consciousness is also highlighted in Dr. Bettina Love's writing, that without critical consciousness, we face the danger of turning "schools into places that mirror society instead of improving it." By weaving critical consciousness into instructional practices, teachers provide a pathway for students "to understand that if we have to learn with each other we should also learn about each other so we can bring each other up," as suggested by Christopher Emdin in For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education.

The current state of K-12 school curricula, intervention, and assessment follows a long history of skill-based learning and measure with minimal consideration for cultural relevance. Student assessments are often leveraged to measure success toward standardized benchmarks. The outcomes of these assessments lead to interventions and the adoption of new curricula that are aimed at building academic skills. Unfortunately, the primary focus on skill-based learning neglects to address the criticality necessary for students to develop a strong sense of their identities. In addition, students miss the opportunity to gain an understanding of how they can maneuver themselves beyond the classroom in meaningful and productive ways. In other words, critical literacy goes beyond academic skill-building and extends into a student's understanding of all forms of injustices and their ability to recognize how they can impact change. Dr. Geneva Gay warns that while some programs may increase achievement levels for students of color, "...their effect may not stand the test of time or be as comprehensive as they claim. They may inadvertently cause students to compromise their ethnic and cultural identity to attain academic achievement. " (Gay, "Culturally Responsive Teacher: Theory, Research, & Practice")

In order to maximize the effectiveness of any curriculum, the content must provide personalized context and cultural relevance for students to serve as a medium through which critical consciousness can insert criticality into the learning experience. However, ignoring the social and cultural backgrounds of diverse students increases the risk of resistance and communicates a lack of relevance in their lives. Introducing critical consciousness into the curriculum invites students to consider their interactions with peers as well as the world outside of the classroom. Students begin to consider ideas around equity and justice as it impacts not only themselves but others as well. In this way, the learning experience offers students the freedom to explore creative and transformative ideas about how they can take social action for the betterment of the communities in which they exist. With this purposeful engagement, students are empowered to traverse their identities and beliefs to disciplines and cultures beyond their own, leading them to improve upon their academic performance. Critical consciousness allows students to finally arrive at the answer to the proverbial question: "Why am I learning this?" They discover that their learning can make the world a better place.

" Criticality is the capacity to read, write, and think in ways of understanding power, privilege, social justice, and oppression, particularly for populations who have been historically marginalized in the world." (Gholdy Muhammad, 2018)

However, despite the growing research that highlights the benefits of critical consciousness in the classroom, many educators face challenges to fully implement practices of criticality.

One reason teachers may hesitate to engage in this practice is the assumption of the political nature of this tenet. However, Gorksi and Swalwell, in Equity Literacy for All, remind us that the notion that schools are not and should not be a political space is a common misconception. Rather, Hess and Mcavoy suggest that creating a "political classroom" offers students the opportunity to learn "the process of deliberation that is the major skill being taught. And then, through deliberation, students are learning about the issues,...a process that is, at its heart, democratic."
What are we learning?
Practicing in a culturally relevant way is the embodiment of the thousand-mile journey beginning with a single step. It's a challenging process where teachers who are doing the work of culturally relevant teaching never truly feel a sense of mastery or completion. Becoming a culturally relevant educator requires noticing, listening, being open to new perspectives, and interrogating one's past. It requires deep empathy and intentionality on the teacher's end to see the brilliance in minoritized students. For example, in an empathy interview with a first-grade teacher, Ms. Smith insists that we: "...make[s] sure that our actions as educators are never putting barriers in front of these students, and in fact, we are pushing them to shatter glass ceilings, regardless of any label that society may put on them."

In our conversations with educators, one teacher noted that it was important for students to think critically "about what they're learning and [have] real discussions about the relevance of what we're talking about in their own daily lives." What we see here is that critical consciousness unfolds in the classroom in nuanced ways. Teachers elevate the identities and life experiences of students that help them to have agency to communicate what is individually relevant. Another teacher reminded us that, in creating a space for critical consciousness, it is important for teachers to "give students the ability to be critical and allow them to be." This teacher further explained that "I think that's a skill that students need to practice because they will find that the world isn't necessarily set up for everyone to be critical."

Here, we highlight some of the salient practices shared with us by teachers in the empathy interviews:
The benefits of adding critical consciousness in the classroom

Critical Thinking with Peers "I think a really strong classroom has students who are thinking critically about what they're doing and not just sitting and doing worksheets all the time. I think it would be noisy and I think students would be collaboratively working together towards a common goal. There would probably be an emphasis on writing, storytelling, or being able to speak and explain your thinking in a variety of different ways."

Relevance to Student Lives "I feel thinking critically about what they're [students] learning [in school] and having real discussions about the relevance to their [students] own daily lives"

So ciopolitical Context In and Out of the Classroom "I think the political context that we're living in today is different than when it was when I started teaching. When I first started teaching, I thought that what happens outside of school is separate from what happens in school. I've learned that that doesn't really serve the kids quite well. Kids are aware of everything from kindergarten age and so now that I have learned more about this practice [culturally relevant pedagogy], I am helping students to fully realize versions of themselves. I wish I had been taught to be more critical."

Historical Context and Multiple Perspectives "When we read the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, I never just made it about Tim O'Brien's story. I always brought up how different groups of people were drafted. We watched real footage of news stories and the televised draft. And then I brought in conversations from my [Black] uncles who pointed out that they were only supposed to draft one person from a family but in Black neighborhoods, multiple people from families were drafted...the whole neighborhood was drafted. But if you went to the White side of town there would be maybe just one person per family. This is our history and this is real life. So this is a fictional book, but it relates to you."

In gathering information for this project, we noted that teachers who practice CRP often display a deep understanding of why there is a need for justice and what fuels injustice. Furthermore, they need to understand the intersectional nature of injustice; more specifically, it must be a reminder of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In this tenet, educators must understand how systemic and institutional racism fuels discrimination and oppression and how that leads to an opportunity gap for many students. This understanding and mindset help teachers to avoid blaming their students and their communities for perceived shortcomings.

When introducing critical consciousness in the classroom, the learning environment becomes more than a space for acquiring academic skills and rigor. Students begin to engage in discourse that allows them to question injustices, challenge oppressive practices, and actively participate in problem-solving for the betterment of the communities in which they exist, both in and outside of school. Critical consciousness invites students and educators alike to consider the perspectives of multiple identities when reading and analyzing text. This approach to critiquing and interrogating content humanizes education by expanding its purpose to the larger context of society. As students develop critical consciousness, they also gain an understanding of the significance of their own identities and the power of their influence.

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What Is Critical Consciousness? - Peers and Pedagogy

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"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation [...]