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Critical Consciousness Raising

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1 Definition

Critical consciousness (CC) is also referred to as conscientization, from conscientização in Portuguese, and is a concept mainly developed by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Since the 1950s, CC has been quite influential with important scholarly practice and policy implications. In a recent discussion, Noam Chomsky remembered that Freire’s main book (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written in 1968, and published in 1970) is “an instrument for consciousness-raising, which will lead to change in institutions” (Leddy 2013).

Freire’s early ideas involved cooperative decision-making, social participation, and political responsibility. He did not see education as merely a way to master academic standards or skills that would help a person professionally. Instead, he cared that learners understood their social problems, and that they discovered themselves as creative agents (Diaz 2018). In this sense, CC has a transformative potential that could be used to inform the structure...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Carlos Oliveira Santos

  2. Department of International Relations, Autonomous University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Luísa Godinho

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  1. Carlos Oliveira Santos
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  2. Luísa Godinho
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    Carol Breland

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    Craig Lefebvre

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Santos, C.O., Godinho, L. (2021). Critical Consciousness Raising. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Social Marketing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14449-4_70-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14449-4_70-1

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