Developing Critical Consciousness in Youth

Describes how common, everyday spaces in youth's lives can be leveraged to help them recognize and fight injustice.

Written for scholars and practitioners, this book demonstrates how we can support youth's critical consciousness development – their ability to recognize and fight injustice. It focuses on common settings and contexts in youth's lives, such as schools, extracurricular programs, and experiences with racism and nativism.Critical consciousness is the ability to critically analyse societal inequities and to develop the motivation and agency to promote social change. While there has been a proliferation of empirical work on critical consciousness over the last two decades, this is the first volume to consider how we can support youth's critical consciousness development – their ability to recognize and fight injustice. Leading scholars address some of the field's most urgent questions: How does critical consciousness develop? What are the key developmental settings (such as homes, schools, community programs) and societal experiences (racism, policy brutality, immigration, political turmoil) that inform critical consciousness development among youth? Providing novel insights into key school-based, out-of-school-based, and societal contexts that propel youth to greater critical reflection and action, this book will benefit scholars and students in developmental, educational, and community psychology, as well as practitioners working in schools, community-based organizations, and other youth settings.