Social Consciousness Theories 7

Social Consciousness Theories
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Social Consciousness
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Social Consciousness Theories
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Social Consciousness
Everyone utilizes consciousness in their day to day activities. Consciousness, meaning
one’s awareness of his surroundings, is hugely influenced by many factors. Some have been
argued by theorists who include; Paulo Freire, Lev Vygotsky and Basil Bernstein. They discuss
diverse factors affecting consciousness both in educational and societal perspectives. This paper
reviews their theories in depth.
Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher developed a theory explaining the role
of society in world transformation. Freire expounds on the ability to use education as a tool of
moulding a person ethically and the community too. Freire argued students should be considered
co-creators of knowledge thus the need for a more mutual approach to learning. He adds that
social consciousness involves being ready to take action against oppressive factors both on social
and political levels. Freire argues that literacy and power cannot be separated.
Freire said education can be used either as a way to engage the young into the fast-
changing world, or as a tool teaching people to be self-sufficient by innovative thinking (Freire,
Ramos, & Macedo, 2009). Paulo explains critical consciousness as the ability to intervene in
reality thus be able to change it. He uses conscientization, the use of education as a tool in
society shaping, to explain a way in which both the oppressor and the oppressed can benefit
(Kress & Lake, 2013). This is a system that enables everyone realize their own power by being
able to impact their realities. This involves making everyone understand that an oppressive
relationship is a double aged sword.
Paulo Freire through his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, emphasized that everyone
should be concerned about how to affect reality. One should analyze his surrounding beyond the

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normal perception. He believed people undergo developmental stages namely, the magical and
naïve stages. This is before getting to critical social consciousness. These stages manifest
themselves naturally in human growth from being magical infants to naïve children then
eventually becoming social conscious people.
Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934), the Russian psychologist argued factors such as community
and culture played a crucial role in individual cognitive development (Akhtar, 2014). He
believed intellect development is influenced by what goes on around our daily lives. Vygotsky
stated that mastering life skills such as writing and culture, especially at a young age, played a
crucial factor in developing higher thinking capabilities. He stated culture can be a determinant
of one’s ethics. This is because most of a child’s learning occurs in the sociocultural environment
through apprenticeship an example is children learning languages by few words first that allow
for better speaking with growth.
Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory is mainly based around three pillars; The Zone
of Proximal Development (ZPD), More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and Social Interaction.
His theory emphasizes more on how social factors play crucial roles in cognitive development.
The ZPD gauges a learner’s ability to solve questions without aid from the teacher and solving
the same question with a tutor’s aid. The Social Interior theory argues that functions in infants
appear on social levels initially and on individual levels eventually. The MKO theory refers to
anyone with higher understanding than the learner e.g. tutors and computers. Children adopt the
language and actions of dialogues and demonstrations of the more knowledgeable other into their
private speech and then use those to guide and reflect their own actions (Terri Swim, 2011).
Vygotsky’s theory expounds the effects socialization has on the learning curve of a
person. An example is when a child does not know to solve a math question alone but upon