Many new forms of tourism have emerged over the past two decades claiming to provide an alternative, responsible approach to international travel. Unlike ecotourism and volunteer tourism, travel centered on solidarity activism has not been thoroughly explored in the academic literature. Through narrative interviews conducted with organizational staff, former travelers, and members of a rural host community, this study profiles three organizations that organize solidarity travel experiences in Nicaragua. Qualitative analysis of the interviews and secondary materials including blog posts and videos reveals that staff, travelers and community members feel that they benefit from the exchanges that take place during solidarity travel. However, the study participants also articulated a number of concerns and issues with the practice of solidarity travel, including the limited nature of ongoing contact between travelers, coordinating organizations, and the communities that are visited while in Nicaragua. The experience of solidarity travel provided participants with a greater understanding of the connections between Nicaragua and North America, and a critical self-awareness for young travelers in particular, as many were experiencing the Global South for the first time. The successful translation of that exposure and awareness into activism is less certain and is identified as an area for future improvement of the overall solidarity travel experience. Overall, this study contributes to the emerging literature on solidarity travel by comparing three organizations with different missions and methods, and showing how solidarity can be enacted in a variety of ways through travel. Through the inclusion of three distinct groups of participants, this study also highlights similarities and differences related to the way solidarity travel is experienced by members of these groups.

This study is an exploration of the possibility of pedagogical partnership between low socioeconomic public high school principals and their classroom teachers for the purpose of advancing critical thinking skills and critical consciousness development in their students. This study will explore the viability of these partnerships through the perspectives of associate superintendents, principals, and teachers. The exploration will seek to determine the participants’ willingness to partner pedagogically, their readiness to advance critical thinking and critical consciousness development in their students, and their perception of district and state policies that might help or stand in the way of such development. / text

Many new forms of tourism have emerged over the past two decades claiming to provide an alternative, responsible approach to international travel. Unlike ecotourism and volunteer tourism, travel centered on solidarity activism has not been thoroughly explored in the academic literature. Through narrative interviews conducted with organizational staff, former travelers, and members of a rural host community, this study profiles three organizations that organize solidarity travel experiences in Nicaragua. Qualitative analysis of the interviews and secondary materials including blog posts and videos reveals that staff, travelers and community members feel that they benefit from the exchanges that take place during solidarity travel. However, the study participants also articulated a number of concerns and issues with the practice of solidarity travel, including the limited nature of ongoing contact between travelers, coordinating organizations, and the communities that are visited while in Nicaragua. The experience of solidarity travel provided participants with a greater understanding of the connections between Nicaragua and North America, and a critical self-awareness for young travelers in particular, as many were experiencing the Global South for the first time. The successful translation of that exposure and awareness into activism is less certain and is identified as an area for future improvement of the overall solidarity travel experience. Overall, this study contributes to the emerging literature on solidarity travel by comparing three organizations with different missions and methods, and showing how solidarity can be enacted in a variety of ways through travel. Through the inclusion of three distinct groups of participants, this study also highlights similarities and differences related to the way solidarity travel is experienced by members of these groups.

abstract: The purpose of this investigation was to develop a testable integrative social cognitive model of critical consciousness (Freire, 1973) that explains the relationship between critical consciousness and intent to persist in college among underserved students, such as undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers. Three constructs based on theory (i.e., critical reflection, critical action, and political efficacy) as well as a new one (i.e., political outcome expectations) were conceptualized and tested through a framework inspired by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994; Lent & Brown, 2013). A total of 638 college students participated in this study and reflected a spectrum of disadvantage and educational attainment, which included 120 DREAMers, 124 Latina/o students, 117 non-Latina/o minorities, and 277 non-Latina/o Whites. Goodness of fit tests showed support for the adequacy of using the new model with this diverse sample of students. Tests of structural invariance indicated that 10 relational paths in the model were invariant across student cultural groups, while 7 paths were differentiated. Most of the differences involved DREAMers and non-Latina/o White students. For DREAMers, critical action was positively related to intent to persist, while that relationship was negative for non-Latina/o Whites with legal status. Findings provide support to the structure of critical consciousness across cultural groups, highlight the key role that students’ supporters (i.e., important people in their life) play in their sociopolitical engagement and intent to persist, and suggest that political outcome expectations are related to higher persistence intention across all students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2017

With the transition to a new philosophy of education in post-apartheid South Africa a paradigm shift began from banking education to outcomes-based education. South Africa looked to other countries for a framework on which to build its curriculum. The first post-apartheid curriculum as well as the subsequent revised curriculum seems to be a contentious matter as outcomes-based education as practised in South Africa is widely criticised by educationists. This study endeavours to interrogate the structure and underlying principles of the current curriculum to gain an understanding of whether and how critical consciousness, learning support materials and environmental education feature in the national curriculum. The purpose of the study is to gain an understanding of what happens in South African environmental education classrooms especially with regard to the construction of meaning and the prospects for Freirean critical education. The research questions elucidate the nature of critical education and its capacity to inform the sociology of learning in environmental education within the South African context. The research purpose is therefore exploratory and descriptive. The research questions emerge from the literature review which informs the study and also conceptualises the key tenets of the inquiry. The literature study reveals that there is adequate mention in policy documents regarding the importance of learning support materials in teaching and learning, but there seems to be a gap in the literature about how learning support materials are currently used in South Africa to develop critical consciousness particularly in environmental education classrooms. This research attempts to address this gap. The research conducted falls within the conceptual framework of critical pedagogy. It is however the humanist approach asserted by Paulo Freire that premises the study. The research design and philosophy of the study is delineated and the researcher’s role in the research process is elucidated. An ethnographic case study positioned within the qualitative approach serves as the methodology by which the research questions are explored. The choice of methodology and the ontological premise of the study are accounted for and issues of quality are discussed with regard to credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. The purpose of this study was not to find solutions and no definitive answers were sought or obtained. The findings of the study point to three critical contentions and the following was established: Firstly, that although the National Curriculum Statement pays lip service to some of the ideals of Freirean pedagogy, it is inherently behaviourist in that it has clearly defined outcomes and assessment standards that learners should attain regardless of learner diversity. Secondly, that the manner in which the educator facilitates the learning support materials is the determining factor in the attainment of the set learning outcomes by the learners. Thirdly, that the manner in which knowledge transmission happens in a lesson influences the development of critical consciousness in learners. The findings only serve as suggestions and the reader is invited to look at the possibilities that Freirean pedagogy has to offer and what might be possible in environmental education classrooms. The findings of the study cannot be generalised and have to be interpreted and applied by the reader within a specific context of teaching and learning. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Humanities Education / unrestricted

This qualitative research study examines six participant's awareness and understanding of a Treatment Literacy (TL) programme implemented by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in the Western Cape in the period 2001 to 2009. The study investigates what attracted the participants to the TAC; what they learnt and how this was taught; the extent, if any, to which participant's experiences changed their understanding of HIV and AIDS, sexuality, treatment and other health-related practices. To analyse participants' awareness levels, understanding and experiences, I drew on Freire (1970; 1985) and Mezirow (1991; 1994) adult education literature, more specifically literature addressing the social movements and how activists learn and teach in different context (informal and non-formal) such as Newman (1995) and Foley (1999). These perspectives underpin the central argument of the thesis, namely that adult education is contextual and has impact on awareness, understanding and experiences and in this case HIV and AIDS. A primary finding of the study is how the participants in the study perceived the world as central to their learning. Learning is thus a substantially personal experience; however, the development of the individual frequently occurs within a group dynamic. Participants felt that being part of TAC and fighting for access to treatment and helping other people who are either HIV positive or affected by HIV and AIDS, helped them in turn to deal with their own challenges of being HIV positive and affected with HIV and AIDS. Being HIV positive and receiving education from TAC has given participants dignity and the necessary consciousness to obtain control of their life. Participants also reported that the TL programme boosted their confidence and raised their level of awareness and understanding of the topic.

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The present study argues that the central notion and practice unifying Edward Said’s oeuvre is that of “secular” criticism, which he conceives of as the defining activity and tool of the humanistic intellectual. We also argue that Said sees the intellectual’s moral mission of “secular” criticism as based in Said’s understanding of “humanism” as intellectual production aimed at concrete change in the real world of human struggles for universal justice and human emancipation from oppression of all types. Related to Said’s particular and perennial upholding of a particular understanding of humanism, Said wields a religious-secular rhetoric as a weapon to expose and question the ironic fact of the “religiosity” of those persons, movements, and ideologies claiming their basis in the unswervingly “secular.” Within the overall body of Said commentary, Said’s effort to recover humanism as a useable praxis of human emancipation from oppressive systems has been largely neglected. This is largely due to the misrecognition of Orientalism as Said’s defining project and the consequent sublation of equally if not more significant, defining elements in the Saidian oeuvre than Orientalism , e.g. “secular” criticism. This study finds that the religious-secular trope conveys Said’s notion of what criticism is and does in a re-constructed humanism, a “humanism of liberation,” as Saree Makdisi has aptly called it, and not, as some commentators have seen it, an expression of a self-contradictory disdain for religion with a concomitant defensive posture toward Islam. In this thesis, Said’s religious-secular rhetoric is analyzed for its meaning, for its role in Said’s idea of criticism, and for its significance in Said’s effort to re-construct humanism as an emancipatory practice. Finally, this study argues that Said’s writing to and on the Arab-Islamic world, and particularly his writing on Palestine-Israel, exemplifies what Said means by the term “secular” criticism. In this sense, Said’s work on the problematic of Palestine-Israel is a synechdoche of his entire critical project. This interpretation is unique in that it challenges the idea that Said’s work on Palestine-Israel is an endeavor outside his professional vocation as a humanist and is motivated merely by Said’s passionate attachment to his homeland. This thesis aims to show how Said’s work on the problematic of Palestine-Israel is not only a model of what Said means by the term “secular criticism,” but avers further that, coupled with Said’s writing to and on the Arab Islamic world, his work on Palestine-Israel represents the most significant labor of his “non-humanist” humanism, or the “humanism of liberation” as a still valid practice, and as an intellectual, ethical framework, and a means of concretely furthering the struggle for universal human emancipation—which Said defines as completely in line with his work as a humanist. In other words, Said’s work on the problematic of Palestine-Israel is not a political side-line apart from his work as a man of letters but is a body of quintessentially humanistic production at the heart of the concept of “secular criticism.” The present study argues that the central notion and practice unifying Edward Said’s oeuvre is that of “secular” criticism, which he conceives of as the defining activity and tool of the humanistic intellectual. We also argue that Said sees the intellectual’s moral mission of “secular” criticism as based in Said’s understanding of “humanism” as intellectual production aimed at concrete change in the real world of human struggles for universal justice and human emancipation from oppression of all types. Related to Said’s particular and perennial upholding of a particular understanding of humanism, Said wields a religious-secular rhetoric as a weapon to expose and question the ironic fact of the “religiosity” of those persons, movements, and ideologies claiming their basis in the unswervingly “secular.” Within the overall body of Said commentary, Said’s effort to recover humanism as a useable praxis of human emancipation from oppressive systems has been largely neglected. This is largely due to the misrecognition of Orientalism as Said’s defining project and the consequent sublation of equally if not more significant, defining elements in the Saidian oeuvre than Orientalism , e.g. “secular” criticism. This study finds that the religious-secular trope conveys Said’s notion of what criticism is and does in a re-constructed humanism, a “humanism of liberation,” as Saree Makdisi has aptly called it, and not, as some commentators have seen it, an expression of a self-contradictory disdain for religion with a concomitant defensive posture toward Islam. In this thesis, Said’s religious-secular rhetoric is analyzed for its meaning, for its role in Said’s idea of criticism, and for its significance in Said’s effort to re-construct humanism as an emancipatory practice. Finally, this study argues that Said’s writing to and on the Arab-Islamic world, and particularly his writing on Palestine-Israel, exemplifies what Said means by the term “secular” criticism. In this sense, Said’s work on the problematic of Palestine-Israel is a synechdoche of his entire critical project. This interpretation is unique in that it challenges the idea that Said’s work on Palestine-Israel is an endeavor outside his professional vocation as a humanist and is motivated merely by Said’s passionate attachment to his homeland. This thesis aims to show how Said’s work on the problematic of Palestine-Israel is not only a model of what Said means by the term “secular criticism,” but avers further that, coupled with Said’s writing to and on the Arab Islamic world, his work on Palestine-Israel represents the most significant labor of his “non-humanist” humanism, or the “humanism of liberation” as a still valid practice, and as an intellectual, ethical framework, and a means of concretely furthering the struggle for universal human emancipation—which Said defines as completely in line with his work as a humanist. In other words, Said’s work on the problematic of Palestine-Israel is not a political side-line apart from his work as a man of letters but is a body of quintessentially humanistic production at the heart of the concept of “secular criticism.” The present study argues that the central notion and practice unifying Edward Said’s oeuvre is that of “secular” criticism, which he conceives of as the defining activity and tool of the humanistic intellectual. We also argue that Said sees the intellectual’s moral mission of “secular” criticism as based in Said’s understanding of “humanism” as intellectual production aimed at concrete change in the real world of human struggles for universal justice and human emancipation from oppression of all types. Related to Said’s particular and perennial upholding of a particular understanding of humanism, Said wields a religious-secular rhetoric as a weapon to expose and question the ironic fact of the “religiosity” of those persons, movements, and ideologies claiming their basis in the unswervingly “secular.” Within the overall body of Said commentary, Said’s effort to recover humanism as a useable praxis of human emancipation from oppressive systems has been largely neglected. This is largely due to the misrecognition of Orientalism as Said’s defining project and the consequent sublation of equally if not more significant, defining elements in the Saidian oeuvre than Orientalism , e.g. “secular” criticism. This study finds that the religious-secular trope conveys Said’s notion of what criticism is and does in a re-constructed humanism, a “humanism of liberation,” as Saree Makdisi has aptly called it, and not, as some commentators have seen it, an expression of a self-contradictory disdain for religion with a concomitant defensive posture toward Islam.