Cultivating Critical Consciousness

Ways to Support and/or Constrict the Magic of Critical Dialogue

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18060/27593

Keywords:

critical dialogue, critical consciousness, facilitation, anti-Black racism, qualitative research

Abstract

Anti-Black racism, rooted in white supremacy, is a public health crisis in the US that infects and affects every aspect of life. Critical consciousness (CC) and its derivatives, such as Transformative Potential, have been elucidated as the antidote to the disease of white supremacy. Further, with the current focus on anti-racism and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives, strategies aimed at raising CC are becoming the norm. One strategy to develop critical consciousness is engaging in critical dialogue, difficult conversations that connect macro and micro contexts by exploring issues of power, privilege, and oppression. This paper considers a case study of participant data obtained from the critical dialogue component of Community Wise, an innovative, multilevel, behavioral health, group intervention grounded in critical consciousness theory. The purpose of the paper is to identify and discuss the best practices for critical dialogue facilitation that emerged via a qualitative analysis of the selected Community Wise sessions.

Author Biographies

Sarah Ross Bussey, Briar Patch Collaboratory

Sarah Ross Bussey, PhD, LCSW, works as Director of Care Management with Mount Sinai Health Partners in NYC, and recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Briar Patch Collaboratory.  She is also co-founder of de-Liberate LLC, a training, professional development, and consulting organization aimed to support practitioners, organizations, and leaders embrace an anti-racist and liberatory approach in their practice/business using research/practice-based strategies offered through creative and flexible modalities.  Her research interests include anti-racism clinical and community-based interventions; social work practice and anti-racism supervision; effective interventions to enhance and tools to measure critical consciousness; restorative justice and community healing; health disparities; and, critical qualitative methods. Sarah received her B.A. in Sociology from Reed College, Masters in Social Work at Portland State University, (where she was awarded the 2008 NASW Community Based Practice Award), and PhD in Social Welfare at the CUNY Graduate Center.  She worked in various capacities of youth work—with a focus on complex trauma, gang-involvement, transgenerational poverty, justice-system entrenchment, housing insecurity, and skill development—before joining an innovative program addressing clinical case management needs in a health care setting.  Sarah’s most recent publications include: findings from a qualitative constructivist grounded theory research project exploring the strategies anti-racist social work supervisors employ to disrupt racism and other forms of bias in social work practice; qualitative findings describing the experiences of social work supervisors who practice using an anti-racist framework; making the case for race-conscious policies and initiatives to address race-based health disparities through population health strategies; and an exploration of the impact of organizational and contextual variables on the ability to engage in anti-racist supervision. 

Aitan Eliach, NYP-Health System

Aitan Eliach, LMSW, is a psychiatric social worker and treatment care coordinator in an inpatient hospital unit specializing in psychosocial rehabilitation for long-term psychosis. He enjoys philosophy, critical theory, and political theory. Aitan intends to pursue doctoral studies that delve into the phenomenological experience of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and how it affects normative health frameworks.

Alexis D. Jemal

Alexis Jemal, LCSW, LCADC, MA, JD, PhD, associate professor at Silberman School of Social Work-Hunter College, is a critical-radical social worker, social entrepreneur, and artivist who specializes in racial justice, radical healing, wellness, and liberation. Dr. Jemal’s research and scholarship are grounded in her Critical Transformative Potential Framework that guides the development and implementation of holistic, socio-cultural, psychosocial, biobehavioral health interventions. She teaches courses at the master’s level in clinical practice, critical social work practice, and human behavior, and at the doctoral level in arts-based participatory action intervention research and public scholarship.

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Published

2024-10-29

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Vol. 24 No. 2 (2024): Summer 2024

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