Constructing Critical Consciousness

Virginia Lea received her PhD in social and cultural studies in education from the University of California, Berkeley. Virginia tries to live a commitment to greater socioeconomic, political, cultural, and educational equity, recognizing the educultural power of music, the visual and performing arts, narrative, and dialogue to bring this about. She sees her teaching, research, and scholarship as a contribution to the construction of networks of consciousness that recognize how hegemony contributes to global inequalities and develop practical ideas for transforming the institutional structures and cultural norms and values that reproduce injustice, cruelty, and inequality. Paul R. Carr is a Sociologist and a Full Professor in the Department of Education Chair-holder of the　UNESCO Chair in Democracy, Global Citizenship and　Transformative Education (http://uqo.ca/dcmet/) at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO),　Canada. His research is broadly concerned with political sociology, with specific threads related to democracy, media literacy,　peace studies, intercultural relations, and transformative change in education. He has sixteen co-edited books and an　award-winning, single-author book (Does your vote count? Democracy and critical pedagogy). He is the Principal Investigator　of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) research project entitled Democracy, political literacy　and quest for transformative education, and is co-founder of the Global Doing Democracy　Research Project.Darren E. Lund is a Professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, where his research examines social justice activism in schools, communities, and professional education programs. Darren was a high school teacher for 16 years, and formed the award-winning Students and Teachers Opposing Prejudice (STOP) program. Darren co-founded the Service-Learning Program for Pre-Service Teachers, winner of the national 2012 Award of Excellence in Education from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Darren has been recognized with a number of awards and honors, including the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s 2015 Educational Research Award, the inaugural 2013 Alberta Hate Crimes Awareness Award, the 2012 Scholar-Activist Award from the American Educational Research Association (Critical Educators for Social Justice), and was named a Reader’s Digest National Leader in Education.

«Day by day, the fog is clearing and our nation is awaking to the reality that so-called ‘reforms’ are destroying public education. ‘Constructing Critical Consciousness’ brings clarity not only to persisting inequities in education, but perhaps more significantly, to the misleading stories about education that mask those inequities and the better alternatives awaiting us. Virginia Lea and colleagues provide an essential resource for reframing the debate that is both alarming and hopeful, insightful and compelling – everyone should read and use this book today.» (Kevin Kumashiro, author of ‘Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture’; and Dean of the University of San Francisco School of Education, San Francisco, California)«Through an outstanding compilation of essays, this book strikes at the very heart of hierarchies of power, which so brutally preserve the violence of inequalities in schools and society. Boldly shattering hegemonic myths of legitimacy, Virginia Lea offers narratives and research that powerfully counter old allegiances to dominant structures of schooling, as well as possibilities for emancipatory transformation. By so doing, she calls forth a humanizing political project of education, anchored firmly in creative constructions of critical consciousness and the evolution of democratic life.» (Antonia Darder, Leavey Endowed Chair of Ethics and Moral Leadership, Loyola Marymount University, California)

• Contents: Virginia Lea: Constructing Critical Consciousness: Narratives That Unmask Hegemony, including «Race», and Ideas for Creating Greater Equity in Education – Virginia Lea: The Interrelated Hierarchy of Power ‒ Virginia Lea: Overview of Historical, Economic, Political, and Educational Hegemonic Narratives – Lawrence Charlier/Ashley Timmers: Mechanisms of Power That Mask Hegemony and Construct Identities – Dang Yang: Narratives from Research That Unveil Hegemony – Virginia R. Harris/Jean Ishibashi: Raging against Hegemony: Invited Narratives That Unmask Hegemony – Piri Ackerman-Barger/Ann Berlak/Roberta Ahlquist: Dispelling the Voices of the Powerful That Inhabit Us – Koko Jones/Patrick Allen/Sally Savas/Sydney Casey/Stephanie Amormino/Virginia Lea: Unmasking Homophobia, Colonialism, and Racism ‒ Antonio Del Prete/Babatunde Lea/Molly Ware/Mayana Lea/Janani S. Srikantahrajah: Alternative, Critical Multicultural, Abolitionist Pedagogies That Facilitate Critical Literacies.