Critically Conscious Blog Post

This week, we begin a new book, On Critically Conscious Research. This book so far has been markedly different from our previous readings. It is much more theoretical and philosophical. Rather than describing methods or laying out ways of research, this material looks at the underpinnings and motivations for critically conscious research.

The first chapter was “A Framework for Understanding Critically Conscious Language and Literacy Research.” It looked at three of the major early theorists who began the development of critical consciousness: Kant, Hegel, and Marx. Their theories, though lacking modern notions of gender and racial equality, laid the foundations of an understanding of critical awareness, social construction, ways of knowing, and power relationships that later critical theories react to and build upon.

The most important departure from Kant, Hegel, and Marx in the type of critical consciousness preferred by Willis et al is a focus on how critical consciousness is shaped and shapes marginalized groups, specifically women and people of color. Thus, in subsequent chapters, the authors present ideas from these groups to counteract a Anglicized and paternalized body of knowledge.

The second chapter of the readings is “A History of the Ideas Underpinning Critical Consciousness,” which starts by examining which groups took up the ideas of Kant, Hegel, and Marx and developed the ideas we know now as “critical consciousness” and “critical research.” The Frankfurt group (and it subsequent evolutions) was one the first bodies of scholars to examine this. The chapter then moves into race relations in the United States, which have led to racial contributions and corrections to existing ideas of critical consciousness. Since knowledge and knowing are socially and geographically shaped, the authors explicitly include contextualized ideas from writers, activists, and theorists of different races, genders, and locations in their historic time periods.

The final chapter in this week’s reading was “Critical Consciousness: Language, Literacy, and Pedagogy.” After moving through history, this chapter hovers around contemporary times and examines current ideas about how today’s society still faces challenges of overcoming class, race, and sexual oppression. Specifically, they look at three lenses, critical race theory, critical feminisms, and critical pedagogy to examine how language and literacy practices continue to shape, maintain, or disrupt existing power structures through education.

The authors focused for a bit on how Whiteness is perceived as a norm and this leads to all other races being judged against the (perception of) “acultural” White. One exception to White people who viewed themselves as acultural was a group of Irish who displayed the same sense of unique cultural pride and preservation as peoples of Color. I have heard of theories that make Irish people “non-White” because of their history of being colonized. It could be interesting to study this group in conjunction with Critical White Studies. Perhaps this colonized group had an easier time transitioning into the post-colonial world than other groups who do not appear White. (My own personal bias comes into play with my interest here, so it is possibly too tangential).