Fostering critical consciousness online

Strategies, opportunities, and gaps in the literature

Abstract

This systematic review examines how learning in online environments and using online tools foster critical consciousness. A key tenet of critical and liberatory pedagogy - critical consciousness includes developing the skills to think critically about and take action to address structural inequities. Student participation in activities that foster critical consciousness are associated with higher academic, socio-emotional, and citizenship outcomes. However, there is limited documentation of critical consciousness raising online. Further, there is a risk that technology exacerbates rather than mitigates the long-standing inequities for individuals belonging to marginalized groups through embedded normative assumptions, algorithmic biases, and surveillance practices. Grounded in critical theory, we fill that gap and examine the strategies and components of critical consciousness fostered in online and blended learning environments across 96 studies published between 2010 and 2023. The most frequently observed critical consciousness raising strategy was students’ engagement with power, and the least documented one was enactment of change inside and outside the classroom. The online environments and tools provided several unique affordances and advantages to fostering critical consciousness online including digital content creation and sharing, critical media inquiry, online advocacy and community participation, digital cultural repositories simulations, and cross-cultural collaborations. Findings from this systematic review study highlight best practices within online teacher training, professional development, instructional design, and policy to support the enactment of liberatory pedagogy online that both inspires the mind and transforms communities.