Advances in the Conceptualization and Measurement of Critical Consciousness

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Web End = Urban Rev (2015) 47:809823

DOI 10.1007/s11256-015-0336-7

Matthew A. Diemer1 Ellen Hawley McWhirter2

Emily J. Ozer3 Luke J. Rapa4

Published online: 22 August 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract This article reviews three emergent measures of critical consciousness (CC), which refers to marginalized or oppressed peoples critical reection on oppressive social, economic, or political conditions, the motivation to address perceived injustice, and action taken to counter such injustice in a liberatory manner (Freire in Education for critical consciousness. Continuum, New York, 1973; Watts et al. in New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 134:4357, 2011). Until recently, no instruments were explicitly designed to measure CC, resulting in fragmented approaches to its conceptualization and measurement. The concurrent development and validation of three measuresthe Measure of Adolescent Critical Consciousness (McWhirter and McWhirter 2016), the Critical Consciousness Inventory (Thomas et al. in J Res Adolesc 24(3):485496, 2014), and the Critical Consciousness Scale (Diemer et al. in press)represents a signicant scholarly advance. We argue that these new measures provide a conceptual anchor for subsequent CC inquiry, useful for both quantitative and qualitative studies. We also recommend mixed-methods approaches to research aimed at understanding how CC develops and operates. We conclude by raising a number of questions to guide future research, the answers to which will further rene scholars conceptualization and measurement of CC.

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& Matthew A. Diemer [email protected]

1 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

2 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

3 University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

4 Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

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810 Urban Rev (2015) 47:809823

Keywords Critical consciousness Sociopolitical development Empowerment

Scale development Mixed-methods Adolescents Marginalization

Introduction

Critical consciousness (CC), or conscientizao, was dened by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire as learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality (2000,p....