Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble: A Call to Create Identity Affirming Spaces for Black Youth to Grow As Agents of Change in Early Childhood and Elementary School Classrooms

Black adolescents' experiences with racial socialization, racial identity, and critical reflection of need for school change of racial inequity

“…Critical consciousness frameworks often conceptualize this process as having multiple components, including a critical reflection (i.e., the ability to identify and critique structural oppression), political efficacy (i.e., personal confidence that one may implement social change), and critical action (i.e., involvement in individual and collective actions that disrupt the sociopolitical status quo (see Heberle et al, 2020 for a review). In models and empirical research that consider the role of race and racism in youths' sociopolitical development, critical reflection is specific to identifying and critiquing racial inequity, racial injustice, and structural racism in their communities (Anyiwo et al, 2020;Bañales et al, 2021;Briggs et al, 2023;Mims et al, 2022;Seider et al, 2023). Drawing on these frameworks, youths' identification of racial inequities in schools and their determination that the school system should change to better address racial inequities is critical reflection, as youths' desire to change this injustice is rooted in their analysis that school systems are racially unjust (Anyiwo et al, 2020;Bañales et al, 2021;Briggs et al, 2023;Mims et al, 2022;Seider et al, 2023).…”

“…In models and empirical research that consider the role of race and racism in youths' sociopolitical development, critical reflection is specific to identifying and critiquing racial inequity, racial injustice, and structural racism in their communities (Anyiwo et al, 2020;Bañales et al, 2021;Briggs et al, 2023;Mims et al, 2022;Seider et al, 2023). Drawing on these frameworks, youths' identification of racial inequities in schools and their determination that the school system should change to better address racial inequities is critical reflection, as youths' desire to change this injustice is rooted in their analysis that school systems are racially unjust (Anyiwo et al, 2020;Bañales et al, 2021;Briggs et al, 2023;Mims et al, 2022;Seider et al, 2023).…”