Research proves link between students poverty consciousness and praxis

Recent quantitative research has begun to show links between critical consciousness and an array of positive developmental outcomes, including political engagement, employment, and psychological wellbeing.31 Critical conversations about racism and inequality can also contribute to stronger teacher-student bonds.32 Educational scholars such as Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade and Eric DeMeulenaere have written about the corrosive effects on students’ trust in teachers when the latter fail to acknowledge or witness the stresses or barriers in their everyday lives.33 Experiences of racial microaggressions need to be brought out into the open where people can talk about what they mean and how to dismantle them. This kind of educational work is challenging, even risky, if not carried out in a way that is respectful of young people’s dignity and agency. The point is not to persuade someone she is oppressed or deliver a lecture about how she should see the world. One of Freire’s biggest targets of criticism was what he called the “banking model of education,” which presumed that the teacher possessed the right information and just needed to deposit it into the learner’s head. Critical education, instead, is dialogic and egalitarian. You ask questions, you share experiences, you encourage deliberation about different perspectives. And, perhaps most important, these critical conversations must recognize and support people’s sense of hope and agency. They are not intended merely to substitute self-blame for system-blame, without action. Freire was as skeptical of idle talk as he was of mindless activism. Praxis signals a mix of smart analysis and efforts to change things. Luis, Gabriela, their classmates, and the teacher demonstrated this potent mix of critique and collective agency in a project they developed over the course of the year to address the problems of racism and xenophobia that surfaced on Cinco de Mayo.