Interdisciplinary scholarship on the salience of race and racism attests to the changeable yet pervasive underpinnings of hegemonic whiteness, white supremacy, and colonialism on global systems of oppression (Christian, 2019). Although the markers of racism vary across time and place, an understanding of the dynamics of systemic oppression and racialized social systems (Bonilla Silva, 2021) is necessary for concomitant resistance, advocacy, and social change initiatives across international contexts. This begs the important question of how educational institutions support such processes in its citizenry, especially among young people.

Applied scientific and neurological evidence attests to the developmental significance of the adolescent and early adulthood periods, characterized by contextually relevant gains in cognitive, social, and affective competencies. Brazilian educator Paolo Freire cast young people as uniquely positioned to enact the kind of radical hope and courage that are necessary to achieve a more equitable and racially-just world. More specifically, youth develop critical consciousness, or conscientização, by becoming co-investigators in dialogue with mentors and each other, through what Freire (1970/1993) called a problem-posing pedagogy. In this dynamic process, “students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge” (Freire, 1970/1993, p. 62). As it relates to global racial inequity, scholars have identified critical racial consciousness as a domain-specific dimension of critical consciousness, defined as one’s beliefs, perceptions, emotional valence, and activism associated with race (Bañales et al., 2023). Indeed, youth’s ability to interrogate their lived experiences with racialized systems of dominance and inequality are tantamount to their sense of agency and civic engagement in their socio-political worlds (Dyrness, 2023). Yet, strategies to support, affirm, and inspire youth in this process are less well understood in global context.

In this research topic, we seek to provide interdisciplinary and global insights on the exciting potential of young people to be agents of change in the struggle for racial justice, with a particular focus on the construct of critical racial consciousness. We invite empirical, theoretical, and applied investigations using varied methodological approaches that examine questions such as the following: What does critical racial consciousness and racial advocacy among racial-ethnically diverse adolescents and young adults look like in different global contexts? What geographic and contextual factors influence their respective emergence and manifestation? What roles do educational institutions, teachers, and mentors play in nurturing critical racial advocacy among youth? Topics might address (but are not limited to) the following themes within racial-ethnically diverse youth populations:

• Racial Consciousness among Youth

• Youth Critical Consciousness Development

• Youth Anti-Racism Action

• Experiences with Racial Stereotype, Prejudice, and Discrimination Among Youth

• Perceptions of Racial Messaging Among Youth

• Ethnic-Racial Identity and Ethnic-Racial Attitudes and Awareness

• Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) in School or Community Contexts

• Teacher Critical Multicultural Pedagogy

• Anti-racist Curriculum or Curricular Practices

• Research-Practice Partnerships (RPP) Around Race and Social Justice

• Global Youth Community Projects

• Intersection of Youth Climate Change Activism and Racial Consciousness

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Frontiers in Education

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