Developing Critical Consciousness: Resistance Literature in a Chicano Literature Class

Starting from a framework that emphasizes indigenous heritage, high school teacher Curtis Acosta and students in the Chicano/Raza Studies classes engage with literature that reflects the students’ lives, families, and histories. Doing so encourages students to visualize and affirm academic identities while they confront current issues of oppression, develop critical consciousness, and become familiar with movements of resistance and action.