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Critical consciousness refers to the ability to analyze and take action against oppressive social forces shaping society. This longitudinal, mixed methods study compared the critical consciousness development of adolescents of color (n = 453) attending two sets of high schools featuring schooling models that represent "opposing" approaches to education. The participating adolescents were 13-15 years old at the start of the study; the majority identified as African American or Latinx; and nearly 80% came from low-SES households. They attended public charter high schools located in five different northeastern cities. Analyses of longitudinal survey data revealed that the adolescents attending these two sets of high schools demonstrated greater rates of growth on different dimensions of critical consciousness over their four years of high school. Qualitative interviews with youth attending these two sets of schools (n = 70) offered evidence of the long-theorized relationship between critical consciousness and problem-posing education, but also that effective practices supporting youth critical consciousness can be found embedded in schools featuring a broader range of pedagogies. These findings offer support for ethnic studies and action civics programming that several state departments of education have recently added to secondary school curricula.

This mixed-methods, longitudinal study utilized survey data from a sample of (primarily) Black and Latinx adolescents' (n = 643) and qualitative interviews with a subset of adolescents (n = 39) to consider changes in adolescents' beliefs about poverty and economic inequality throughout high school as well as the sources of their beliefs. Adolescents demonstrated significant, linear growth in their beliefs that poverty was caused by structural factors. This finding resonated with analyses of four waves of qualitative interviews in which a majority of participating adolescents shifted from citing individualistic causes to structural causes in their explanations of economic inequality and the opportunity structure in the United States. In explaining the sources of these beliefs, participating adolescents most frequently cited personal experiences, school-related experiences, and social media.

Research has found that directly teaching students to question positively affects academic outcomes. Although theoretically questioning is believed to foster numerous "noncognitive" outcomes, relatively few studies have considered the impact of direct instruction in questioning on students' curiosity and related motivational constructs. The present quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of a student question-brainstorming intervention (the Question Formulation Technique; QFT) on adolescents' curiosity, cognitive school engagement, and self-efficacy (achievement efficacy and self-regulatory school efficacy) over one school year. Multiple-group structural equation path modeling was utilized to consider the impact of the intervention on these constructs, while accounting for the interrelationships among the variables. Results indicated a positive impact of the QFT on students' curiosity, but a negative impact on students' self-regulatory for self-efficacy learning and cognitive engagement. Limitations and implications for educators are discussed.

Sociopolitical development refers to the processes by which an individual acquires the knowledge, skills, and commitment to analyze and challenge oppressive social forces. A growing body of scholarship reports that high levels of sociopolitical development are predictive in adolescents of a number of key outcomes including resilience and civic engagement. The present study explored the role that urban secondary schools can play in fostering adolescents' sociopolitical development through a longitudinal, mixed-methods investigation of more than 400 adolescents attending "progressive" and "no-excuses" high schools. Analyses revealed that, on average, students attending progressive high schools demonstrated meaningful growth in their ability to critically analyze racial and economic inequality, while students attending no-excuses high schools demonstrated meaningful growth in their motivation to challenge these inequities through activism. Qualitative interviews offered insight into youth's perceptions of the programming and practices at their respective schools that contributed to their sociopolitical development.

What does the development of a young person's political agency look like, and what role can schools play in this process? The authors profile Blackstone Academy, where administrators integrate social activism, community service, and other service-learning projects into the curriculum to help students develop leadership skills and confidence. The authors also discuss how other schools might imitate these kinds of projects to help their own students feel empowered.

Critical consciousness, the process by which individuals come to understand, analyze, and take action against systems of oppression, is associated with several positive youth outcomes. However, little research has considered how the core components of critical consciousness (critical reflection, political agency, critical action) are associated with academic achievement. The present study explored the extent to which the developing critical consciousness of adolescents of color (N = 364) over 4 years of high school predicted academic achievement, as measured by grade point average (GPA) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Results demonstrated that adolescents' critical reflection and critical action intercepts predicted SAT scores whereas critical reflection and critical action slopes predicted GPAs. Political agency was not predictive of either academic outcome.

Interpersonal and structural forms of racism contribute to a system of economic stratification in the United States in which children of color are disproportionately likely to be born into poverty and to remain poor as adults. However, only a small body of research has focused on Black and Latinx adolescents' developing beliefs about the causes of poverty or the relationship between such beliefs and their awareness of racism. The present study sought to contribute to this scholarship with a longitudinal investigation involving Black and Latinx adolescents (n = 457) attending urban secondary schools in 5 northeastern cities. Specifically, we investigated (a) these adolescents' change over time in their beliefs about the causes of poverty; (b) the relationship between their developing beliefs about the causes of poverty and changes in their awareness of racism; and (c) the role of a progressive schooling experience in influencing the adolescents' beliefs about the causes of poverty. Multivariate latent growth modeling revealed that participants demonstrated significant positive change over time in their conception of poverty as caused by structural factors as well as a significant relationship at each time point between adolescents' beliefs about the causes of poverty and awareness of interpersonal racism. However, we found that attending a secondary school featuring a progressive schooling model did not significantly predict adolescents' change in beliefs about the structural causes of poverty.

This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program upon participating college students' belief in the American Dream. The SERVE Program is a community service learning program sponsored by the philosophy and theology departments at Ignatius University. Using a mixed methods approach, the authors found that participating students demonstrated significant declines in their belief in the American Dream in comparison to a randomly assigned control group. Qualitative interviews revealed that the program exerted this influence, in part, by providing participants with diverse opportunities to think critically about the availability of opportunity in the United States. (Contains 2 notes, 1 footnote, and 5 tables.)

Sociopolitical consciousness refers to an individual's ability to critically analyze the political, economic, and social forces shaping society and one's status in it. A growing body of scholarship reports that high levels of sociopolitical consciousness are predictive in marginalized adolescents of a number of key outcomes including resilience and civic engagement. The present study explored the role that urban secondary schools can play in fostering adolescents' sociopolitical consciousness through a longitudinal, mixed methods investigation of more than 400 adolescents attending "progressive" and "no excuses" charter high schools. Analyses revealed that, on average, students attending progressive high schools demonstrated sizeable shifts in their sociopolitical consciousness of racial inequality, and students attending no excuses high schools demonstrated sizeable shifts in their sociopolitical consciousness of social class inequality. Qualitative interviews with participating students offered insight into the curriculum, programming, and practices that these youth perceived as contributing to these differences in their sociopolitical consciousness.

Research has suggested that critical consciousness--the ability to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and the commitment to take action against these systems--can be a gateway to academic motivation and achievement for marginalized students. To explore this approach, the authors studied five urban schools that include critical consciousness development in their mission. Three strategies emerged as promising practices that schools can use to develop black students' critical consciousness and harness the connection between critical consciousness and student achievement. They include teaching students the language of inequality, creating space to interrogate racism, and teaching students how to take action.

Critical consciousness refers to the ways in which individuals come to understand and challenge oppressive social forces. Philosopher-educator Paulo Freire argued that critical curiosity--an eagerness to learn more about and develop a deep understanding of issues of social justice--serves as an important catalyst to critical consciousness development. Yet, relatively little scholarship has considered how to foster critical curiosity in adolescents. The present qualitative study analyzed semi-structured interviews with 60 adolescents attending five Northeastern urban charter high schools with mission statements focused on fostering students' engagement in social action. Specifically, the study considered these students' perceptions of the impact of their respective schools' social engagement programming upon their critical curiosity. The interviews were analyzed using a flexible inductive/deductive approach drawn from the thematic analysis approach to qualitative analysis. The findings of this study indicate that students had a variety of conceptions of what stimulates their critical curiosity, including relevance, exposure to new perspectives, and receiving new, surprising information. Alignment with Freire's conceptions of critical curiosity and current curiosity scholarship, implications for educators, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

We examined associations between hope as an internal asset that supports positive youth development, and growth trajectories of three critical consciousness components. Using five waves of data collected over the course of high school (N = 618), we modeled growth trajectories of awareness of inequity (critical reflection), a sense of agency about taking sociopolitical action (critical agency), and behaviors targeting systems of oppression (critical action). Hope was highest among those with high trajectories of critical agency and critical action. Clear associations with hope emerged at the last time point for critical reflection, suggesting that sustained growth in critical reflection is associated with hope. When supporting the critical consciousness development of youth of color, concurrent support for hope may be instrumental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: A handful of studies have previously reported on positive associations between critical consciousness and academic achievement for youth of color. The present study contributes to this scholarship by investigating how the association between critical consciousness and academic achievement varies for youth (N = 179) across different content areas in school, as well as whether this association differs for youth from different racial–ethnic groups. Method: For three different measures of critical consciousness, we fit single-level ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models to investigate their relationship to students' academic achievement in four different subject areas. We also included moderation models to investigate whether the relation between critical consciousness and academic achievement differed for students of color versus White students. Results: OLS regression analyses revealed that different components of critical consciousness differentially predicted students' academic achievement in different subject areas. Additionally, moderation analyses suggest that these associations between critical consciousness and academic achievement are stronger for students of color than White students. Conclusions: These findings may encourage more K–12 schools and school systems to adopt culturally relevant and sustaining curriculum (such as ethnic studies coursework) that offer more opportunities for youth from both dominant and marginalized identity groups to learn about issues of power, oppression, and resistance to oppression. Public Significance Statement: More than 30 states in the United States have recently adopted or introduced laws that limit teaching in K–12 schools about race and racism. The present study finds that, in a racially diverse sample of high school students, young people's ability to understand and analyze racism was significantly associated with higher levels of academic achievement in several subject areas, and that these associations were particularly strong for high school students of color. These results may encourage more K–12 schools to adopt culturally relevant and sustaining curriculum that offer opportunities for youth to learn about issues of power, oppression, and resistance to oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This past winter, the third student-run homeless shelter in the United States came into being. Two recent Harvard graduates, Sam Greenberg and Sarah Rosenkrantz, who had volunteered at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter as college students, saw a need within the Boston and Cambridge communities for a homeless shelter serving young adults. Drawing upon the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter's student-run model, Sam and Sarah worked with Harvard College undergraduates to open Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Harvard Square, a homeless shelter exclusively for young adults ages 18--24. This article features an interview with Sam and Sarah about their work to establish Y2Y Harvard Square and the experiences of the college students leading and staffing the shelter.

Over the past decade, many student affairs professionals have turned their attention to non-cognitive factors that can play a role in supporting students from underrepresented groups in making it to and through college. The work in this area that has gotten the most attention in recent years has focused on students' sense of belonging and efficacy. In this article, the authors begin by acknowledging the numerous strengths of belonging-centered and efficacy-centered approaches to fostering college student success but also argue that these approaches are incomplete. They posit that a more critically conscious approach to fostering college-going success can deepen participating college students' sense of purpose and, in so doing, increase their likelihood of successful college completion.

In this article, the authors describe the experiences of five cadets and college students serving as camp leaders for the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) Leaders of Character Camp (LoCC). Additionally, they describe the work in which three other universities are engaged to adapt the LoCC model to their own university contexts. In so doing, the authors seek to offer insights into how such camp experiences foster college students' leadership and character and to highlight some of the efforts to expand the reach of such experiences across the nation.

Over the past several years, there has been a resurgence of interest in--and reconceptualizing of-- character education in primary and secondary schools across the United States. An important question, then, is how this new emphasis on character development at the K-12 level impacts the work of university faculty and student affairs professionals. Are graduates of these primary and secondary schools with an intensive character focus arriving at their respective universities with heightened levels of grit and social intelligence? Are such qualities facilitating their ability to thrive at the postsecondary level? Are university faculty and staff coordinating with their K-12 counterparts to support the continued development of these qualities in newly matriculated students? The authors pose these questions in interviews with four different university stakeholders who can speak to the effects at the university level of the new character education emphasis in many American primary and secondary schools.

A middle school in Boston designs its curriculum and culture--from its nightly homework assignments to its Powerful Speaking Extravaganza--upon a foundation of strengthening students' motivation and ability to do the hard work necessary to accomplish their goals. Roxbury Prep's emphasis on perseverance finds support in a robust body of education research. Studies of gifted children have found perseverance to be a stronger predictor than intelligence of success in adulthood, as has historical research on the trajectories of geniuses such as Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Likewise, a number of scholars have found that a key commonality in high-achieving artists, athletes, chess players, and mathematicians is an ability and willingness to put in long hours of time and effort. Most recently, Angela Duckworth and colleagues found that an individual's grit and self-discipline are stronger predictors than IQ of success in populations ranging from urban middle school students to West Point cadets.

This study compared the effects of emphasizing moral character development or performance character development at three high-performing, high-poverty urban middle schools. Performance character consists of the qualities that allow individuals to regulate their thoughts and actions in ways that support achievement in a particular endeavor. Moral character consists of the qualities relevant to striving for ethical behavior in one's relationships with other individuals and communities. Using a quasi-experimental research design, the authors found that early adolescents attending a school emphasizing moral character development through ethical philosophy programming demonstrated significantly higher levels of integrity over the course of the 2010 to 2011 academic year than their peers at two matched comparison schools ("N" = 544). However, the early adolescents attending the comparison schools--which emphasized performance character development through advisory programming--demonstrated significantly higher levels of perseverance and community connectedness over the course of the academic year. These divergent outcomes across the three schools offer useful implications to educators, researchers, and policy-makers about the different effects of privileging a particular dimension of character education. (Contains 4 tables.)

A growing body of research has found community service learning to have a positive effect upon participating college students' civic development; however, far less scholarship has considered the impact of particular components of a community service learning program. This article presents two preliminary but promising strategies for enhancing the effects of community service learning programming upon participating college students: (a) identifying students' expectations at the outset of the service experience about what they expect to accomplish and (b) providing students' parents with opportunities to participate in their children's reflection about their service experiences.

This mixed-methods study considered the effects of ethical philosophy programming at a high-performing, high-poverty urban high school upon the academic integrity of participating adolescents ("n" = 279). Analyses of pre-post survey data revealed that participating adolescents reported significantly higher levels of academic integrity than their peers at a matched comparison school. Field notes from observations of ethical philosophy lessons and qualitative interviews with participating students revealed that this programming offered students frequent opportunities to practice moral reasoning and introduced philosophical perspectives that influenced students' conception of and commitment to academic integrity. (Contains 2 tables and 3 footnotes.)

Background/Context: Over the past two decades, more than 200 studies have been published on the effects of community service learning on university students. However, the majority of these studies have focused on the effects of such programming on White and affluent college students, and few have considered whether there are differential effects for participants depending on their racial and ethnic backgrounds. This study considered these differential effects in both the academic and experiential components of such programming. Participants: This study compared the experiences of 244 White students and 118 students of color participating in a community service learning program at Beacon University (a pseudonym) during the 2008-2009 academic year. Intervention: The Social Action Program is a community service learning program sponsored by Beacon University's philosophy department that seeks to educate participating students about social injustice. The academic component of the program is a year-long course that includes interdisciplinary readings from the humanities and social sciences as well as weekly lectures and a discussion section. Participating students also spend 10 hours each week for the entire academic year at one of approximately 50 different service placements focused on antipoverty efforts. Research Design: Mixed-methods research design involving quantitative analyses (analysis of covariance) of pre-post surveys and qualitative analyses of hour-long semistructured interviews. Results: Students of color participating in the community service learning program characterized the academic component of the program as offering a weaker sense of community than did their White classmates, and many expressed a reluctance to engage in race discussions with their classmates or to respond to perspectives they perceived as naive, inaccurate, or offensive. Conclusions: Even university courses and programming explicitly designed to disrupt White privilege can inadvertently be normed to serve the interests, experiences, and learning goals of White students. Such reification of White privilege comes with a significant cost; the learning of all students is diminished when diverse perspectives are not fully represented or heard.

Background/Context: Performance character consists of the qualities that allow individuals to regulate their thoughts and actions in ways that support achievement in a particular endeavor. Moral character consists of the qualities relevant to striving for ethical behavior in one's relationships with other individuals and communities. A sizable body of research has demonstrated correlations between student achievement and performance character strengths such as self-discipline, while the relationship between achievement, conduct, and moral character strengths such as integrity is more ambiguous. For both types of character, however, the majority of the extant research literature has focused on relatively small samples of elementary school children, university students, and high-achieving students. Setting: This study took place at three "No Excuses" charter middle schools in a large northeastern city. Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are supervised by state boards of education rather than a local superintendent or school committee. "No Excuses" is a term used to describe high-poverty public schools featuring a strict disciplinary environment, extended school day and year, college preparatory mission, and an intensive focus on traditional reading and mathematics skills. Participants: This study considered the relationship between achievement, conduct, and several character strengths among 488 early adolescents attending three urban charter schools in a large northeastern city. More than 90% of these students identified as African American, Latino, or multi-racial, and two thirds qualified for free or reduced price lunch (a proxy for low socioeconomic status). Research Design: This study combines self-reported survey data on participating students' character strengths with student-level data on grade point average and demerits collected from participants' schools. We fit quantile regression models to consider the relationships between participating students' character strengths, academic achievement, and conduct while controlling for select demographic characteristics. Results: Analyses revealed that students' perseverance, school connectedness and grade level were positive predictors of academic achievement while integrity and demerits were negative predictors of academic achievement. Student conduct was significantly predicted by grade level, grade point average, gender, race/ethnicity and commitment to integrity. In short, both performance and moral character strengths were unique predictors of key student outcomes. Conclusions/Recommendations: In recent years, a number of high-profile charter management organizations have identified cultivating students' performance character as a key lever in promoting student success. Our findings suggest that these organizations would do well to expand their character education programming to include students' moral character strengths as well.

This mixed methods study considered the relationship between the civic development of college students participating in the Serve Program at Ignatius University and the influence of these students' parents. The Serve Program is a community service learning program that combines coursework in philosophy and theology with a year-long service project. Analyses of pre-post survey data revealed that students whose parents were highly supportive of their participation in the program demonstrated the greatest increases in public service motivation and expected political participation. Qualitative interviews with Serve participants revealed that highly supportive parents provided students with additional opportunities for reflection upon the readings, lectures and service projects they were encountering through the Serve Program. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)

This mixed-methods, longitudinal study utilized survey data from a sample of (primarily) Black and Latinx adolescents' (n = 643) and qualitative interviews with a subset of adolescents (n = 39) to consider changes in adolescents' beliefs about poverty and economic inequality throughout high school as well as the sources of their beliefs. Adolescents demonstrated significant, linear growth in their beliefs that poverty was caused by structural factors. This finding resonated with analyses of four waves of qualitative interviews in which a majority of participating adolescents shifted from citing individualistic causes to structural causes in their explanations of economic inequality and the opportunity structure in the United States. In explaining the sources of these beliefs, participating adolescents most frequently cited personal experiences, school-related experiences, and social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1983-2011, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the only student-run homeless shelter in the United States. However, college students at Villanova, Temple, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, and Swarthmore drew upon the HSHS model to open their own student-run homeless shelter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in January 2012. This article describes the process by which the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia opened its doors, as well as the successes and challenges encountered in its first year of operation. The feasibility of this student-run model expanding to other American cities is also considered.

The Serve Program at Ignatius University is a community service-learning program that combines academic study of philosophy with a yearlong field-based project at one of approximately 50 different sites. Half of these projects entail working with youth, while the other half entail working with adults. This mixed methods analysis found that college students engaged in adult-oriented service demonstrated larger shifts in public service motivation and belief in a just world than their peers engaged in youth-oriented service. Qualitative interviews with participating students suggest that these differences may be due to the disparate expectations of participants who entered into their respective service experiences. (Contains 4 tables.)

This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program at Ignatius University upon participating students' expected political involvement. The SERVE Program is a community service learning program sponsored jointly by Ignatius University's philosophy and theology departments. Through a mixed methods research design, the authors found that Ignatius University students participating in the SERVE Program demonstrated statistically significant increases in their expected political voice in comparison with peers in a control group. Qualitative interviews with SERVE participants revealed that the program increased students' awareness of political and social issues; heightened their commitment to philanthropy; fostered their interest in pursuing socially responsible work; and strengthened their commitment to working for social change. (Contains 3 notes and 5 tables.)

In a previous article for the "Engagement on Campus" column in the "Journal of College and Character", the authors described the weaker sense of community experienced by students of color and students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds in a university-based community service learning program, as well as how students from these identity groups described and understood their experiences within the program (Novick, Seider, & Huguley, 2011). In this article, the authors turn to qualitative interviews with participating students from this same community service learning program who identified as White and/or affluent. The descriptions by these students of conversations within the program about race and class offer further insight into the dynamics that contribute to a discrepant sense of community in courses or programs involving community service learning.

A Boston school for grades 6-12 is making a deliberate effort to help students develop ethical minds. Each year, all students take an ethical philosophy class in which they discuss the school's core values and how these values are addressed in the writings of such philosophers as Aristotle and Rousseau. Through these classes, students develop a common vocabulary about respect that is used schoolwide, whether during regular whole-school gatherings or in one-on-one conferences with administrators. Teachers and students believe that this attention to respect and other core values has played a pivotal role in students' academic success.

The Serve Program at Ignatius University combines academic study of theology with a year-long community service project focused on combating poverty. An analysis of the Serve Program during the 2008-09 academic year revealed that participating students demonstrated a significant increase in their interest in theology; a greater desire to enroll in theology coursework; and a deeper interest in theology than classmates not participating in the service-learning program. Interviews with Serve participants revealed that their exposure to poverty and inequality through their service placements led them to read the program's assigned theological texts with a particular focus on the authors' messages about individual and social responsibility for struggling fellow citizens.

This mixed methods study investigated the impact of learning about homelessness on the civic development of privileged adolescents. Pre-post surveys, classroom observations, and qualitative interviews revealed that the participating adolescents developed a more complex understanding of the factors that contribute to homelessness; however, this deeper understanding of homelessness was not accompanied by a reconfiguring of participants' beliefs about America's opportunity structure. Instead, this study's privileged adolescents defended their own positions within the existing class structure by invoking legitimizing, and naturalizing ideological frames. This resistance to social justice content impeded participating teens' development of civic responsibility for fellow citizens contending with poverty and homelessness. (Contains 3 notes and 4 tables.)

Community service learning at the university level is often conceived of as a mechanism for introducing privileged young adults to people with whom they have never interacted and experiences they have never had. American universities and courses involving community service learning are increasingly filling, however, with undergraduates who are members of the identity categories to which the community service learning experiences are intended to introduce them. The authors of this study consider the experiences of university students of color participating in a community service learning program. (Contains 2 footnotes.)