Date Approved

3-11-2021

Embargo Period

3-12-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Zion, Shelley

Committee Member 1

Alvarez, Adan

Committee Member 2

Kedley, Kate

Keywords

Critical Consciousness, Critical Literacies, Critical Pedagogies, Sociopolitical Development

Subject(s)

Critical pedagogy

Disciplines

Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Educational Leadership | Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education

Abstract

Taliaferro Baszile (2017) tells us, "Education can be revolutionary work." To that end, if education historically has been a means for "inculcating" students into a hegemonic code of beliefs and values (Gramsci, 1971), it is the educator's duty to concern themselves with developing a critical consciousness (Freire, 1970/1996; Freire, 1973/1998) in order to transform the world through acts of social justice. The focus of this research project was to uncover, from the perspectives of four teachers, how they came to understand their own critical consciousness and sociopolitical development at a middle school in southern New Jersey. By uncovering the ways these four teachers describe their sociopolitical development and enact critical pedagogies in their classrooms, engage in building relationships with students, families, and staff, and commit to improving equity in their school through a collective mural of their individual journeys, we may bring meaning on how best to inform prepare pre- and in-service teacher educators about how to better prepare teachers- and particularly White teachers-to be agents of change, disrupting inequitable educational systems (Zion, Allen, & Jean, 2015).

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