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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]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The mission of the SERVE Program is to educate our students about social injustice by putting them into direct contact with marginalized communities and social change organizations and by encouraging discussion on classic and contemporary works of philosophy and theology. Our goal is to foster critical consciousness and enable students to question conventional wisdom and learn how to work for a just society. We accomplish this by helping our students make relevant connections between course material and experience with community service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Watts, Williams, and Jagers (2003) define critical consciousness as an awareness of existing social inequities and their history, including the processes and outcomes of oppression. Many scholars and reformers are asking secondary-level educators to deepen the critical consciousness of their teenage students by teaching them about ways in which race, class, and gender systematically influence Americans' access to economic and educational opportunity. However, the widening demographic gap between teachers and students in urban secondary schools and associated differences in their beliefs about America's opportunity structure can pose serious challenges for teachers who are committed to critical consciousness education. In this article, we suggest that teacher preparation programs must offer aspiring urban teachers not only a sociological and historical perspective on inequality but also a developmental perspective on how people's beliefs about inequality evolve and are influenced by their social positioning. We also offer specific recommendations for human development content that may be useful in this endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I investigate the beliefs of privileged adolescents about their obligations to those contending with hunger and poverty as well as the impact of 'trolley problems' upon these adolescents' beliefs. To consider the attitudes of the young adults in this study, I draw upon their student writing from a course on social issues as well as survey and interview data collected at the start and conclusion of this course. I found that, for the privileged adolescents in this study, their consideration of a particular trolley problem actually decreased their sense of responsibility for countries and individuals contending with hunger and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]