Situating Critical Consciousness Within the Developmental System

Over a relatively short period of time, critical consciousness (CC) has become a prominent framework for describing how the developing person addresses systems of oppression. However, there has been less work to situate CC within developmental systems theory. The phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a developmental systems theory that accounts for how the reality of oppression influences developmental contexts and processes. We draw on PVEST to illuminate new theoretical directions for CC, including: (1) considering the broader context of CC within the developmental system; (2) addressing meaning-making as a primary developmental process that impacts CC; (3) considering CC as embedded in time, and (4) focusing on the dynamic and collective nature of CC. We explore the combined strengths of CC and PVEST to imagine new research questions that explore the contextualized and dynamic ways young people contend with systems of oppression across development.