You Have to Look at the Whole Picture: A Qualitative Examination of Critical Social Analysis Among Racially Minoritized Adolescents

Abstract

Despite the recent increase in the study of critical consciousness among racially minoritized youth, the process by which youth analyze social issues and their root causes (i.e., critical social analysis) remains obscure. In the current study, we examined youth’s process of critical social analysis and identified factors that contributed to this process. Participants were 14 Black and Latinx high school students in a Midwestern city who were presented with vignettes of high school students experiencing social issues that occur in urban communities. Participants discussed, via interviews, the causes of social issues highlighted in the vignettes and factors that influenced their perspectives. Findings suggest that adolescents consider both individual and systemic factors across the ecological system as contributors to social issues, but also consider individual attributions in the context of opportunities for learning and redemption. Further, youth’s perspectives were influenced by adults as well as youth’s ability to engage in perspective taking and empathy. Findings highlight the importance of moving away from an emphasis on binary explanations for social issues as well as using more humanizing approaches to teach youth to engage in critical social analysis.