Investigating Advisory as a Space for Nurturing Young Adolescents’ Civic Development and Critical Consciousness

Critical consciousness is the ability to analyze and challenge oppressive forces. Philosopher-educator Paulo Freire asserted that nurturing young people’s critical consciousness should be the primary goal of education, so youth develop the will and skill to challenge oppression and build a better world. A growing body of psychology research has found critical consciousness to be predictive of a range of positive youth outcomes including resilience, self-esteem, academic achievement, and civic engagement. The present mixed methods study explored middle school advisory—facilitated spaces for community building and social-emotional support—as a space for nurturing young adolescents’ critical consciousness. Pre-post surveys with youth (n = 283) from five different middle schools found that feelings of school connectedness and feelings of safety in advisory were predictive of different components of youths’ critical consciousness. Interviews with a subset of these youth (n = 53) revealed ways in which the more intimate and informal setting of advisory (in comparison to students’ academic classes) contributed to the students’ investment and willingness to engage in learning and discussion about oppressive forces and how to challenge these forces.