The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 59

Critical Consciousness Development

& Walker, 1985). These assignments also provided critical feedback to instructors on how students were responding to the curriculum and if
adjustments needed to be made. Students were
given the following open-ended prompts:
* What are the most meaningful things you
have gotten from your service experience?
* Reflecting on our travel, what does "crossing
borders, discovering home," mean to you?
* What are the most meaningful things
you have gotten out of your Fight the
Power project?
* Reflecting on your EMDS experience over
the past year, what does "crossing borders,
discovering home," mean to you?
We conducted qualitative content analysis
of reflection papers (N=129) from four EMDS
cohorts (N=53). In an attempt to eliminate
curriculum content variance from our findings, we focused on the four cohorts with the
hip-hop and community organizing course
curriculum. After noting the race and gender
of each assignment author, each reflection was
de-identified and pseudonyms were created to
minimize researcher bias and protect students'
confidentiality. Initial coding was informed by
research on critical consciousness development. Four initial codes were identified: (1) the
LLC environment; (2) Awareness of self and
others; (3) Structural analysis of social issues;
and (4) Understanding and feeling capable of
social action. After the first reading and initial
coding, the researchers refined initial categories and independently re-read the data to
ensure consistency and accuracy.

FINDINGS
We found that students expressed an increased
capacity for critical reflection and critical

action. Four major themes emerged across
all assignments that elaborated on students'
experiences with critical consciousness. First,
students described the residential living component as a place for them to create their own
learning community, receive support, be challenged, and teach each other. Second, they
shared specific reflections on their identities
as well as what they were beginning to understand about the complexities of other EMDS
students' identities. Third, this awareness of
self in relation to others facilitated the development of structural analyses of oppression.
Fourth, students also identified specific ways
they began to understand their own agency as
their desire for social change grew.

THE LLC ENVIRONMENT
Themes related to EMDS as an LLC emerged
and revealed how the environment, or habitus,
of the program was an important aspect of
the program that fostered students' critical
consciousness development and shaped the
program itself. Of the reflections that made
reference to EMDS, 43% regarded it as a "safe
space," "family" or "home," and/or as an environment for organic peer engagement that
supported their persistence and critical consciousness development. Students like Sofia, a
Latina, reflected on how she was struggling to
find her "sense of home within the institution
...(I) thought of transferring until I was accepted to EMDS." Other students such as Jamal,
an African American male, found solace and a
community of students who cared about each
other's greater well-being. He reflected:
People in this program has (sic) looked out for
me and I've looked out for them. Despite our
differences despite our different upbringings
(sic), despite our races and cultures . . . we
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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