Teaching critical consciousness in the age of austerity in the U.S. South

Presentation given at the Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative Conference. Multiethnic researchers share our dilemmas of teaching critical consciousness in the age of austerity in-between race, gender, class, and power in the U. S. South. We begin with a sketch of increasingly complicated and frustrated situations of teaching critical consciousness in the age of austerity where the students are schooled to order driven by common cores and high stake testing while race, gender, class, and power in the South are pushed to the side as we work with pre-service and in-service teachers, high school and university students. We discuss teaching critical consciousness through theoretical explorations and critical reflections. We engage the presenters and the audience in discussions on dilemmas, challenges, possibilities, and future directions of teaching critical consciousness in the age of austerity in-between race, gender, class, and power in the U.S. South. One purpose of this session is to create space for teachers to seek creative strategies to fight back all forms of oppression in the age of austerity for common core and high stake testing in-between race, gender, class, and power in the South and beyond the South. Another purpose is to explore eclectic ways of engaging in creative activist inquiries, telling counternarratives, and critically reflecting upon our backgrounds, experiences, and values and the ways in which our personal histories, languages, cultures, identities, and experiences affect who we are as curriculum workers and how we teach critical consciousness in the age of austerity in-between race, gender, class, and power in the South and beyond the South