In this episode, I speak with Dr. Scott Seider from Boston College and Dr. Daren Graves from Simmons University on their new book, Schooling for Critical Consciousness: Engaging Black and Latinx Youth in Analyzing, Navigating, and Challenging Racial Injustice (Harvard Education Press, 2020).

Over the past thirty years, we have seen a steady increase in students of color in American public schools. The Public School Review reported that from 1997 to 2019, the number of white students in American public schools has declined from over 63 percent to 49.7 percent. One of the key questions that we need to ask is how we shall prepare students of color to become competent and responsible future citizens, especially given the increasingly widening racial disparity in almost all aspects of the social life.

Schooling for Critical Consciousness addresses how schools can help Black and Latinx youth to understand these racial disparities, resist the negative effects of racial injustice and challenge its root causes. Documenting and analyzing how five different mission-driven urban high schools cultivate critical consciousness among their students, Scott Seider and Daren Graves reported the findings of a four-year, longitudinal, mixed methods study. Timely and informative, the book is very helpful for teachers, school leaders, and parents who are interested in supporting youths of color to develop their critical consciousness, navigate their life in the contemporary American society, and challenge the entrenched racial injustice.

Pengfei Zhao is a qualitative research methodologist based at the University of Florida. She is currently working on a book manuscript studying the coming of age experience of rural Chinese youth during and right after the Cultural Revolution.

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