Abstract
Critical consciousness (CC) has been linked to academic and civic engagement for students from marginalized backgrounds, but little work has examined CC for students from more privileged groups. In addition, research indicates that school characteristics may promote the development of CC, but this literature has yet to be fully developed. Specifically, research on school climate has focused primarily on structural and instructional aspects (e.g., democratic school culture, classroom discussions of current events) but has not examined more emotional and relational aspects, such as feelings of connection to teachers and school community. Thus, the current study expands the literature by examining relations between the agency and action components of critical consciousness and two indicators of school climate (school connection and positive relationships with teachers), using a predominantly White sample of middle and high school students (ages 13–18) from a rural school district. Results indicated that both school connection and positive relationships with teachers were positively related to critical agency. School climate variables were generally unrelated to critical action, with the exception of a negative relation between positive relationships with teachers and critical action for middle school students.
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Patterson, M.M., Fite, P.J., Zucker, J.K. et al. Critical consciousness among rural adolescents: the roles of school connection and positive relationships with teachers. Soc Psychol Educ 24, 343–360 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09613-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09613-2