Critical Consciousness in Dual Language Bilingual Education: A Literature Review of Students’ Outcomes

• In Event: Dual Language Bilingual Education: Trends, Policy, Pedagogy, and Future Directions

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this paper is to present a review of empirical studies related to critical (sociopolitical) consciousness for students in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs.
Framework: The literature proposing critical consciousness as a DLBE goal mainly builds on Paulo Freire’s (2005) idea of supporting students to read the word and the world, as a form of identifying discrimination, injustice, and oppression. Reading the world, according to Freire (2005) empowers marginalized individuals to develop a critical consciousness, move away from the margins, and resituate themselves in a position where they can advocate for themselves and others.
Methods: The data collection was based on searches in ERIC, JSTOR, and Academic Search Premier from 1995 to 2020. The key terms used in the searches were “critical consciousness” and “sociopolitical consciousness” along with “dual language” and “dual immersion.” Four criteria were employed: (1) Only peer-reviewed journal articles were included. (2) Only empirical work was gathered. (3) Only articles written in English were collected. (4) Only articles showing students’ outcomes related to critical/sociopolitical consciousness in the DLBE classroom were selected. Data collection gave place to 19 peer-reviewed journal articles that focused on critical consciousness in the classroom and 7 of those articles included outcomes of students’ development of critical consciousness in DLBE classrooms.
The analysis of the literature focused on four aspects following an emerging thematic analysis approach. The four themes were: (1) Type of DLBE program. (2) Partner language. (3) Area of critical consciousness, such as race, class, gender, language, etc. (4) Level of activism.
Results: First, all the DLBE programs in our literature review were two-way programs. Second, each one of the DLBE programs had Spanish as the non-English (partner) language. Third, the little literature that does exist has mainly focused on promoting learning in the categories of race, class, gender, culture, and immigration, with racism being discussed most widely and the rest of the topics being more limited. Research is limited in students’ critical consciousness development in certain areas such as language and undocumented populations. Lastly, because activism is an essential component of critical consciousness, we analyzed evidence of activism in the classroom and found that some teachers encouraged activism and students were embracing these ideas. However, in none of the studies were students engaged in activism in the classroom.
Significance: Our review of the literature suggests that the field of DLBE is still in its infancy in examining and conducting research documenting student outcomes in critical consciousness development. Outcomes of the development of critical consciousness for students in DLBE classrooms have not received as much scholarly attention as other aspects of DLBE student learning. Our review highlights the great need for empirical work to be conducted about students’ explicit development of critical consciousness in the DLBE classroom. Research must continue to be done to better understand how DLBE classrooms can be structured so students are continually developing their critical consciousness in the classroom.

Authors

• Juan A. Freire, Brigham Young University

• Erika Feinauer, Brigham Young University