Jemal Alexis
Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, 2180 3 Ave, New York, NY 10035,
Urban Rev. 2017 Nov;49(4):602-626. doi: 10.1007/s11256-017-0411-3. Epub 2017 May 2.
The education system has been heralded as a tool of liberation and simultaneously critiqued as a tool of social control to maintain the oppressive status quo. Critical consciousness (CC), developed by the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, advanced an educational pedagogy to liberate the masses from systemic inequity maintained and perpetuated by process, practices and outcomes of interdependent systems and institutions. If people are not aware of inequity and do not act to constantly resist oppressive norms and ways of being, then the result is residual inequity in perpetuity. If inequity is likened to a disease or poison, then CC has been deemed the antidote to inequity and the prescription needed to break the cycle. As such, CC is a construct that has important scholarly, practice and policy implications. Scholars, noting the relevance and application of CC to current social problems, have advanced CC theory and practice. However, these innovative advancements have left fissures in the CC theoretical base in need of resolution and consensus to advance a collective and organized body of CC theory. This paper explores the divergent CC scholarship within CC theory and practice articles, provides an in-depth review of the inconsistencies, and suggests ideas to resolve the discrepancies from the literature to support the need for a new, CC-based construct, transformative potential. Without such a review, moving toward conceptual clarity, the lack of a coherent CC knowledgebase will impede the reflection and action needed to transform systems and institutions that maintain and perpetuate systemic inequity that have dehumanizing consequences. If implemented within urban education, theoretical models, grounded in CC theory, could help achieve a system of education that is just, equitable and liberating.
教育系统既被誉为解放的工具，同时也被批判为维护压迫性现状的社会控制工具。巴西教育家保罗·弗莱雷提出的批判性意识（CC）推动了一种教育教学法，以将大众从相互依存的系统和机构的过程、实践及结果所维持和延续的系统性不平等中解放出来。如果人们没有意识到不平等，也不采取行动持续抵制压迫性规范和生存方式，那么结果将是不平等永远残留。如果将不平等比作一种疾病或毒药，那么批判性意识就被视为不平等的解药以及打破循环所需的药方。因此，批判性意识是一个具有重要学术、实践和政策意义的概念。学者们注意到批判性意识与当前社会问题的相关性及应用，推动了批判性意识理论与实践的发展。然而，这些创新性进展在批判性意识的理论基础上留下了需要解决和达成共识的裂痕，以推进一个集体且有组织的批判性意识理论体系。本文探讨了批判性意识理论与实践文章中不同的批判性意识学术研究，深入审视了其中的不一致之处，并从文献中提出解决分歧的思路，以支持构建一个基于批判性意识的新的、具有变革潜力的概念的必要性。如果没有这样的审视以实现概念清晰，缺乏连贯的批判性意识知识库将阻碍对维持和延续具有非人化后果的系统性不平等的系统和机构进行变革所需的反思与行动。如果在城市教育中实施，以批判性意识理论为基础的理论模型有助于实现一个公正、公平且解放性的教育体系。
