Critical Consciousness and life development skills.pdf

Helps students in understanding more about their life and consciousness needed for a better living.

1. 1.CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Main Source
Freire, P(1974) Education for Critical Consciousness

2. Objectives
By the end of this unit you should be able to;
•Define consciousness
•Critical consciousness
•Identify levels/types of consciousness
•Appreciate the role of critical consciousness (CC) in their studies and life

3. Topic Guiding Questions
1. What is the relevance of critical consciousness (CC) to;
•Education
•University students ?
•Society ?
•Individuals ?

4. The Context
▪Derived from the writings of Paulo Freire
▪a Brazilian 21 steducationist and philosopher
▪his thoughts and writings were largely influenced by Karl Marx
▪founder of the idea of critical consciousness as the means to understand the
concrete realities of the majority of the Brazilians which was characterized by;
▪general miserability(inequalities, hunger, poverty, unemployment)
▪

5. Cont’d
▪to address these he advocated for education for critical consciousness
▪Has become a postcolonial theory used to interrogate concrete existential
conditions of peoples in once colonized spaces
▪Freireargued that for once-colonized peoples to address and overcome the above
conditions they need to be conscious of these conditions
▪He therefore advocated for education for critical consciousness
▪In other words, education should aim to engender critical consciousness over and
above the other intended deliverables or outcomes

6. Education & Critical Consciousness-A
relationship
•Education & consciousness
•CC should be the ultimate aim of learning

7. Unpacking the term-CC
•Made of 2 terms notably;critical& consciousness
•Critical is an adjectivedescribing noun-consciousness
•Critical consciousness is a type/kind/level of consciousness
•To understand critical consciousness one must understand what is meant by
consciousness

8. The meaning consciousness
Refers to;
•the nature and quality of the mind
•a state of being alive
•state of being aware and responsiveto one’s surroundings
•-the normal state of being awake and able to understand what is happening
around you
•The ability to respond to stimuli both internal and external

9. Consciousness-Cont’d
•A state of the mind
•Is about the mind and not the brain
•distinguishes animals from human beings
It is conceivable for one to be alive but not conscious

10. Levels of Consciousness in human beings
People’s consciousnessescan be placed into 2 categories/levels notably;
1)Low-order and
2)High-order

11. Low-order
One is considered to be conscious by;
▪the mere fact of being alive
▪by virtue of being alive or being considered to be such
Consciousness is a given to both living beings (both human and non-human)
Therefore by merely being alive or living implies some form of consciousness
▪many human beings belong to this level
Consciousness can thus be considered as a givennot to all human beings

12. Characteristics of low-order consciousness
People in this category can be viewed as;
•Adapters & participators
•Just living
•Not concerned with issues around them
•Might be aware of conditions around them but opts to adopt to them (c/f participators)
•Not questioning reality
•Being satisfied withwhat is
•Not interrogating what is and what seems to be

13. Cont’d
•not bothering to go beyond what appearsto be, to what reallyis
•satisfied with appearances
It is important to note that most people;
•operate at this level
•belong to this level of consciousness
N.B
This level of consciousness is not conducive to innovativeness, industrialization
and development

14. Higher-order level of consciousness
▪is viewed as critical consciousness
▪it’s a mental disposition/attitude/propensity
▪Not a given but a skill
▪Has to be imparted, acquired and developed
▪Can be acquired formally as well as informally
▪Can be learnt or imparted
▪As such can be viewed as a skill
▪Can also be acquired through experience

15. Cont’d
Because it is a skill it is unique to human beings but not all of them
▪As a mental aptitude it has potential to impacton all facets and aspects of human living
Critical Consciousness refers to a questioning/skeptical/doubting mental disposition
characterized by thinking critically as well as skeptically about;
-Sources and dependability of information and knowledge,
-Reality
-Tradition
-Status quo

16. Cont’d
-Religion and religious practcies
-Politics
-Independence (( individual or collective)
-Education and the its aims
-Life issues ( e.gcorruption, unemployment, violence, democracy, freedom, coloniality)
CC is the ability to question the source, purpose and potential uses of information and to
choose between alternative theories based on evidence.
Essentially it is the quest for evidence behind all claims presented as true or the case
It is the ability to think outside the box

17. Other derivatives/offshoots/byproducts
CC permeates and pervades every aspect of human life
There is no space of human life which does not need CC
In the academy CC is needed in
•Medicine
•Engineering
•Education

18. •Economics
•Science
•Agriculture
•History
•Science
•Art

19. CC Cont’d
CC leads to;
•-critical thinking
•-critical reading
•-critical pedagogy
•-critical eating
•-critical knowing
•-critical practice
•-critical driving
•-critical agriculture

20. Benefits/Relevance of CC to students and
society
To students
CC is beneficial to students. It equips students with;
•critical consciousness attitudesto their studies and to life
•-critical understanding of their subject areas
•-critical reading of sources related to their subjects
•-ability to separate truth from falsehood

21. •-critical reading of situations/contexts
•critical writing skills
•-skills to be innovative, creative and to solve life problems
N B
CC is conducive to Education 50
CC is conducive to creativity, innovation and industrialisation

22. Benefits to society
Results in/creates;
•A critical individual/society
•A questioning individual/society
•An awake individual/society
•A thinking individual/society
•A creative individual/society
•An innovative individual/society
•An industrious individual/society
•A problem solving individual/society

23. Challenges (Impediments to CC)
•nature of society
•political space
•Poverty
•religious beliefs
•traditions and customs
•Levels of education

24. CC & Education
•Proximate aim –subject –knowledge acquisition
•Ultimate-i] critical consciousness ii] critical conscious society

25. 2. LIFE SKILLS
Objectives
By the end of this topic students should be able to:
•Define a skill
•Define a life skill and its purpose
•Define and differentiate rational from irrational life skills
•Give examples of rational and irrational life skills

26. Topic guiding question
1.What are life skills and why the concern with life skills
2. What role do life skills play to:
•University graduates ?
•The unemployed youths of Zimbabwe ?
3. What moral principle should guide professional practices in Zimbabwe and
why?

27. What are life skills
Life skills are;
•Skills for living
•Skills for solving problemsin life
•Context specific
•Because life is a process of solving problems
•Also because life is one big problem
•One therefore needs skills to solve the problems of life

28. Cont’d
•The skills an be acquired/ learnt informally or informally
•The skills can also be acquired/learnt from experience
•Since they are skills it means they have to be learnt, developed and perfected
•One is not born with life skills but one has to acquire them
NB. Life skills an be rational or irrational
This modules seeks to differentiate rational life skills from irrational
ones and to emphasiseand promote the later and not the former

29. Rational vs Irrational life skills
Rational life skills
•Discourse on rational and irrational life skills is couched in controversy
•It is relative/subjective
Simply by rational life skills is meant;
•culturally and widely accepted means/ways of achieving ends and goals in life
•accepted means of solving life problems
•Accepted means and ways of addressing needs, desires, wants and goals in life
NB: Informed by Kantian and unhu/ubuntuethics

30. Irrational Life Skills
These are culturally and societally;
•Unacceptable means to attaining goals, desires, wants in life
Essentially these are criminal ways of achieving goals/ends in life
•Informed by consequentialist moral theories which argue that the end justifies the means
E.g;
•Stealing
•Corruption
•Robbery
•Murder
•Abuses of office & priviledge

31. Purpose of L S
•To equip students with rational skills to solve problems they confront in life
N B
Emphasis is on equipping students/society with rational life skills to solve
problems in life

32. THE END