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Preparing critically conscious counseling instructional faculty in the California community college

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Preparing critically conscious counseling instructional faculty in the California community college

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Preparing Critically Conscious Counseling Instructional Faculty in the California
Community College

by
Markus Lynn Berrien

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

August 2022

© Copyright by Markus Lynn Berrien 2022
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Markus Lynn Berrien certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Luz Chung
Kimberly Hirabayashi
Kenneth Yates, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2022

iv
Abstract
There exists a lack of counseling faculty who are culturally sustaining, trained in critically
conscious pedagogies, and equipped with the tools and experiences to adequately serve and
humanize the learning experiences of students from historically racially marginalized
communities. The shortfall has produced prevalent race-based equity gaps throughout California
Community Colleges (CCCs; Miranda, 2021). Race-based equity gaps exist within course
success rates, retention rates, and transfer-level math and English completion rates. The purpose
of this curriculum design was to engage community college counseling instructional faculty in a
learning experience that would equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to adopt
culturally sustaining pedagogies and critically conscious educational tools. Critical
consciousness and culturally sustaining pedagogies are central theoretical frameworks that
informed this curriculum design. The ultimate goal was for counseling instructional faculty to
display cultural self-awareness and awareness of others’ cultures while demonstrating an
understanding of how culture informs individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (Douglas
& Nganga, 2013). The summative assessment includes a collection of reflective and experiential
exercises. A complete implementation plan for the curriculum is provided with an evaluation
plan designed to measure the achievement of curriculum goals and outcomes. Currently, CCCs
can either perpetuate the oppressive and inequitable practices and conditions experienced by
students from historically racially marginalized communities since the inception of the California
Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 or CCCs can become representative and inclusive of
CCC students’ full selves.
Keywords: critical consciousness, culturally sustaining, counseling instructional faculty,
liberation, oppressive conditions.

v

vi
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Yates, Dr. Chung, and Dr. Hirabayashi.
I strive to be equity minded, patient, supportive, and grounded in the humanity of my students in
my daily work. Drs. Yates, Chung, and Hirabayashi have all exercised those practices with me
throughout my educational career and, more specifically, throughout this dissertation process. I
am forever grateful to you. To my family and friends, thank you for being my guiding light and
for your unconditional love. I am thankful for your love, support, and for keeping me grounded. I
am who I am today because I have been able to stand on the shoulders of my ancestors. I love
you, appreciate you, and honor you.

vii
Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x
Chapter One: Overview of the Project and Needs Assessment ...................................................... 1
The Problem of Practice ...................................................................................................... 2
Environment Problem of Practice ....................................................................................... 3
Evidence for the Problem of Practice ................................................................................. 4
Importance of Solving the Problem .................................................................................... 5
Alignment With the University of Southern California Rossier Mission Statement .......... 6
Instructional Needs Assessment ......................................................................................... 6
Implications for Achieving Goals ....................................................................................... 7
Curriculum Purpose, Goal, Assessment, and Outcomes ..................................................... 8
Learning Environment ...................................................................................................... 10
Potential Issues With Power, Equity, and Inclusion ......................................................... 10
Definition of Terms ........................................................................................................... 11
Organization of the Design Blueprint ............................................................................... 13
About the Author .............................................................................................................. 13
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature ....................................................................................... 19
Prior Attempts ................................................................................................................... 19
Content of the Curriculum ................................................................................................ 20
Summary of the Curriculum Content ................................................................................ 30
Chapter Three: The Learning Environment and the Learners ...................................................... 32
Description of the Learning Environment ........................................................................ 32
Learner Characteristics ..................................................................................................... 36

viii
Design Implications of the Learning Environment and Learner Characteristics .............. 41
Chapter Four: The Curriculum ...................................................................................................... 42
Curriculum Purpose .......................................................................................................... 42
Curriculum Outcomes ....................................................................................................... 42
Cognitive Task Analysis (Information Processing Analysis) ........................................... 43
Overview of the Units ....................................................................................................... 46
Delivery Media Selection ................................................................................................. 49
General Instructional Platform Selection in Terms of Affordances ................................. 50
Specific Instructional Platform Selection in Terms of Restrictions .................................. 51
Client Preferences or Specific Conditions of the Learning Environment ......................... 52
Specific Media Choices .................................................................................................... 52
General Instructional Methods Approach ......................................................................... 54
Chapter Five: Implementation and Evaluation Plan ..................................................................... 57
Implementation Plan ......................................................................................................... 57
Evaluation Plan ................................................................................................................. 58
Data Analysis and Reporting ............................................................................................ 74
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 74
References ..................................................................................................................................... 76
Appendix A: Lesson Plan and Instructor’s Guide ........................................................................ 81
Unit 1: Engaging in Critical Reflection ............................................................................ 81
Unit 2: Developing a Practical Understanding of Critical Consciousness and Culturally
Sustaining Pedagogy ......................................................................................................... 92
Unit 3: Creating Culturally Sustaining and Critically Conscious Instruction and
Instructional Environments ............................................................................................. 101
Appendix B: Slide Deck ............................................................................................................. 110

ix
Appendix C: Job Aid for Implementing Critically Conscious and Culturally Sustaining
Instructional Practices ................................................................................................................. 123
Appendix D: Model Lesson Plan for Unit 3 ............................................................................... 124
Appendix E: Rubric Based on the CTA Job Aid ........................................................................ 133

x
List of Tables
Table 1: Main Steps and Required Declarative and Procedural Knowledge .............................. 30
Table 2: Learning Outcomes and Units of Instruction ................................................................ 47
Table 3: Scope and Sequence Table for the Curriculum ............................................................ 48
Table 4: Key Considerations for Media Selection ...................................................................... 52
Table 5: Media Choices in Preparing Critically Conscious Counseling
Instructional Faculty in California Community Colleges ............................................ 53
Table 6: Indicators, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes ........................ 60
Table 7: Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation .............................. 63
Table 8: Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors ........................................................... 64
Table 9: Evaluation of the Components of Learning for the Program. ...................................... 68
Table 10: Components to Measure Reactions to the Program .................................................... 71
Table A1: Unit 1 Course Instructional Activities ....................................................................... 83
Table A2: Unit 2 Instructional Activities .................................................................................... 94
Table A3: Unit 3 Instructional Activities .................................................................................. 102
Table D1: Unit 3 Instructional Activities .................................................................................. 126
Appendix E: Rubric Based on the CTA Job Aid ...................................................................... 133

1

Chapter One: Overview of the Project and Needs Assessment
A newly enrolled community college student visited her college campus the Friday
before school started to get acquainted with the location of her classes and to participate in an
orientation for a program that served students who had experienced foster care. Although she had
taken a 2-hour bus ride from her group home to the college campus and felt overwhelmed by the
newness of college, she felt that she could acclimate. After walking around campus searching for
her classes, she finally found her last class. As she approached the door, she noticed a sign on the
door that read, “Students: You will need to have your textbook for the first day of class. So, if
you have not purchased it yet, do so before the start of class.” At this moment, the student began
to panic and rethought if she could succeed in college.
The situation depicted in this scenario illustrates a disconnect between the needs and
lived experiences of students and the culture of college campuses. Experiences such as this
inequitably impact students from historically racially marginalized communities by failing to
recognize their full humanity.
California Community College (CCC) counseling faculty are uniquely situated to meet
the needs of historically racially marginalized students because their roles are multifaceted. CCC
counseling faculty serve as both counselors and teaching faculty. As such, they serve students
throughout the college matriculation process and in the classroom. These two spaces give
counselors significant insight into a student’s lived reality as an individual from a historically
racially marginalized community and their experiences on CCC campuses. CCC counseling
faculty can create spaces for students to become more knowledgeable about college culture and
college professional practices. Only then can students begin to understand they belong in college
and access the tools they have to succeed in higher education, all while challenging inequitable
2

practices on college campuses.
The Problem of Practice
In 1960, the California Master Plan for Higher Education reformed California’s public
higher education system by instituting a three-tier public higher education system: CCC,
California State University, and the University of California. CCCs provide open access to
higher education for California residents with the intention of providing upward mobility for the
schools’ students. Designers intended the CCCs, which were formerly known as the California
Junior Colleges, to serve as the main entry point for non-university-bound high school students
seeking remedial, vocational, and technical training. The system could also serve as an avenue
toward transfer to a baccalaureate-granting university, such as institutions in the California State
University or University of California systems (Callan, 2009; Douglass, 2010). Today, CCCs
have evolved into a system comprised of 116 colleges offering a selection of baccalaureate
programs. CCCs serve 2.1 million students, 54% of whom come from historically racially
marginalized communities (CCC Chancellor’s Office [CCCCO], 2020).
Prevalent racial equity gaps exist throughout the CCCs (Miranda, 2021). Race-based
equity gaps appear in course success rates, retention rates, and transfer-level math and English
completion rates. Students from historically racially marginalized communities have experienced
long-lasting underrepresentation, have been underserved, and have been denied higher education
opportunities because of race throughout the United States (Rivera-Lacey, 2016). The
underpreparedness of CCC faculty to serve historically racially marginalized students
significantly contributed to these inequities (Miranda, 2021). Aside from the lack of diversity
among faculty, most instructors lack adequate preparation in their graduate programs to teach
racially diverse student populations (Bensimon & Gray, 2020). This reality includes faculty of
3

color.
Too often, administrators assume faculty of color innately know how to support
historically racially marginalized students, but these individuals are often shaped by White
middle-class norms and the status quo—America’s foundation in most educational systems. This
reality perpetuates White-centered norms in faculty pedagogies (Miranda, 2021). Therefore, the
problem of practice is the lack of culturally sustaining and critically conscious faculty who are
equipped with the tools and experience needed to adequately serve and humanize the learning
experiences of students from historically racially marginalized communities. As such, the focus
of this curriculum was on counseling instructional (CI) faculty, that is, those faculty members
who teach classes in athletics, counseling or personal development, and student support for
disabled students. Many first-year students take courses taught by CI faculty, so they are well-
positioned to narrow the racial equity gaps prevalent in the CCCs. Although courses taught by CI
faculty are not mandatory, they do meet general education requirements for students looking to
obtain an associate’s degree, and these courses count as transferable units at both public and
private schools, such as at the University of California and California State University systems.
Environment Problem of Practice
The minimum qualifications for faculty positions in CCCs are consistent across the 116
CCCs. Although some variation may exist in the minimum qualifications for faculty positions
throughout the colleges, all faculty must meet subject-matter expertise requirements, which they
demonstrate through formal education and experience. However, subject-matter expertise is not a
sufficient qualification on its own as pedagogical training is not a minimum qualification for the
teaching profession. However, the lack of minimum qualifications for faculty working with
diverse student populations presents one troublesome aspect of hiring practices. In essence,
4

although faculty must have subject-matter expertise, they are not required to have experience or
training in teaching historically racially marginalized students.
In recent years, many CCCs have added supplemental questions to faculty hiring
applications asking applicants to address the importance of diversity in CCCs. Often, just one
question asks applicants to describe their knowledge of working with diverse student
populations. This is not to say that the CCCs do not value faculty with experience teaching
historically racially marginalized students. However, there may be a systemic undervaluing of
instructor training and experience teaching CCC students.
Evidence for the Problem of Practice
Anecdotal qualitative and quantitative data highlighting the CCC outcomes and
experiences of historically racially marginalized students provide evidence of the problem of
practice. For the purpose of this curriculum design, I relied on quantitative data. Among the
historically racially marginalized student populations, including Black or African American,
Latino or Mexican American, Native American or Alaska Native, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander,
and Filipino students, there is a 9–16% course success rate equity gap, 4–6% retention rate gap,
and 4–7% completed transfer-level math and English gap compared to White student populations
(CalPassPlus, n.d.). This data provides partial insight into the long-standing racial equity gaps
within the CCCs. When disaggregated regarding students’ intersectional identities, such as by
religion, gender, undocumented and immigrant status, identification with having experienced
foster care, having a disability, veteran status, and LGBTQIA+, the data provide a more
complete picture of the depth of racial equity gaps in the CCC system (CalPassPlus, n.d.).
The lack of diversity in CCC faculty also contributes to the racial equity gaps in the
CCCs because it does not align with the significant racial diversity among the student
5

population. White faculty comprise 59% of full-time faculty and 58% of part-time faculty
(CCCCO, 2013). This homogeneity strengthens White norms in the CCCs. Ultimately, many
White instructors have not been adequately trained by their graduate programs to teach
historically racially marginalized students, nor do they have the lived experience to be
knowledgeable of this student population’s lived reality (Bensimon & Gray, 2020).
Importance of Solving the Problem
Nationwide, educators have begun to reimagine what it means to be an educator in the era
of Black Lives Matter, with pressure mounting for educators to take antiracist and abolitionist
positions rather than holding a neutral space in the fight against systemic racism. CCCs stand at a
nexus among social unrest, a public health pandemic, and a long-standing educational crisis that
provides an opportunity for the CCC system to take a leadership role in addressing these
challenges. History cannot be changed. However, CCCs can continue to perpetuate the
inequitable practices and conditions students from historically racially marginalized communities
have faced since the 1960 inception of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, or CCCs
can become representative and inclusive of CCC students’ full selves.
Forty-nine percent of first-time degree-, certificate-, or transfer-seeking students who
began their postsecondary education in CCCs during the 2012–2013 school year completed their
program of study within 6 years (CCCCO, 2013). Disaggregating this data by race, fewer than
42% of African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander
students completed their degree programs within the same period of time (CCCCO, 2013). If
educators fail to address this dismal success rate, the divide and oppressive conditions between
marginalized and unmarginalized groups will be further exacerbated.
Improved instruction can play a role in addressing the disparity. Bensimon and Gray
6

(2020) stated: “We appropriate ‘first-generation,’ lifting it off students and applying it to faculty
to call attention to their racial illiteracy and its detrimental consequences on their ability to
educate minoritized students fairly, equitably, successfully, and with fidelity” (p. 70). Bensimon
and Gray suggested that a significant amount of instructional faculty do not have the experience,
knowledge, or tools to acknowledge and engage race in their courses. Thus, faculty instructional
practices contribute to inequities for historically racially marginalized students.
Alignment With the University of Southern California Rossier Mission Statement
I designed this curriculum to address the lack of faculty equipped with the tools and
experience to adequately serve and humanize the learning experiences of students from
historically racially marginalized communities. The problems of practice aligned with the
University of Southern California Rossier’s mission by addressing inequities that impact the
experiences and outcomes of students from historically marginalized communities. Additionally,
this curriculum design continues Rossier’s mission because it resulted from an interrogation of
the systems of power that shape policies and practices within counseling training programs.
Ultimately, this curriculum design continues Rossier’s mission as it was designed to equip CCC
CI faculty with the tools needed to examine the systems of power in their personal and
professional contexts to achieve educational equity for students from historically racially
marginalized communities.
Instructional Needs Assessment
Significant race-based equity gaps exist regarding course success rates, retention rates,
and transfer-level math and English completion rates at CCC (Miranda, 2021). Although CCCs
have begun to narrow the race-based equity gaps through the development of initiatives such as
AB 705 and student equity funding, CC CI faculty have yet to undergo meaningful training on
7

how to address race-based equity gaps. Particularly, a need existed to equip CI faculty with tools
to help them adequately serve and humanize the learning experiences of students from
historically racially marginalized communities.
Implications for Achieving Goals
There have been countless diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings, webinars, and
workgroups throughout the 116 CCCs. Many of these trainings have aimed to push the needle of
racial equity within the CCCs further. However, CCC Chancellor Oakley’s (2020) call to action
significantly pushed for further efforts to achieve racial equity throughout the CCCs. In a
system-wide memo to all the 116 CCCs, Chancellor Oakley (2020) stated:
Combined, the actions listed above exhibit a system-wide commitment and call to action
to enact policies and procedures that will dismantle systemic racism and advance
diversity, equity, and inclusion. Although progress has been made, there is more work
ahead to transform our structures, and policies, as well as to secure the additional
resources that are needed. This is a decisive moment in history providing us an
opportunity to lead in new and innovative ways. I ask that you stay committed and
accountable and maintain a learner’s humility in this journey to better serve our students.
To enhance the quality and inclusiveness of instruction for historically racially
marginalized students, training in diversity, equity, and inclusion must include (a) space for
instructors to unlearn biases, (b) experiential learning around antiracist work, (c) reflections on
their own cultural identities and histories as well as others, and (d) a space for lifelong learning. I
designed this curriculum dissertation to achieve these goals.
To further contextualize these core learning practices, I grounded this curriculum design
in Smith and Ragan’s (2005) innovation model. The innovation model addresses changes and a
8

need for innovation in an educational system through intentional and reflective activities. It
engages with learners, institutional leaders, and practitioners in a meaningful way. Smith and
Ragan’s (2005) innovation model has four core steps:
1. Contextualize the characteristics of the innovation or change.
2. Define the learning goals that correspond to innovation or change.
3. Prioritize the goals of the organization.
4. Begin conceptualization of instructional design.
In the adoption of Smith and Ragan’s (2005) innovation model, I sought to design a curriculum
that would provide meaningful experiential learning practices informed by the stakeholders who
are working to advance racial equity in CCCs.
In this curriculum design, I used the innovation model (Smith & Ragan, 2005) to identify
the new learning needs required to address the race equity-based policies and philosophical shift
in the CCC system Chancellor Oakley (2020) mentioned in his call to action. This new learning
need involved a charge for counseling instructional faculty to adopt culturally sustaining
pedagogies in their classrooms to actualize system-wide equitable experiences and outcomes for
historically racially marginalized students. The learning goals that accompany this innovation
include the following: (a) Counseling instructional faculty will display cultural awareness of
one’s own and others’ cultures and demonstrate an understanding of the centrality of culture in
informing individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (Kumar et al., 2018); (b) Counseling
instructional faculty will adopt culturally sustaining educational tools in the facilitation of their
courses.
Curriculum Purpose, Goal, Assessment, and Outcomes
I designed this curriculum concurrently with another curriculum to address life skills for
9

first-year historically racially marginalized students (Ramirez, 2021). I intended that the student
curriculum would be implemented by counseling instructors who themselves had been trained to
address the needs of the students in a thoughtful and intentional way that reflects the needs of
historically marginalized students.
Thus, the purpose of this curriculum is multifold. The purpose of this curriculum design
is to engage CI faculty within community colleges in a learning experience that will equip them
with the skills and knowledge to critically reflect on their educational practices. This engagement
will ensure they undertake equity-based practices through the use of culturally sustaining
pedagogical and critically conscious educational practices to enable them to create inclusive and
relevant learning experiences for their students. The first learning goal for CI faculty involves
cultural awareness of their own and others’ cultures while demonstrating an understanding of the
centrality of culture in informing individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (Douglas &
Nganga, 2013). In the second learning goal, CI faculty will be able to use culturally sustaining
and critically conscious tools to facilitate a student version of the curriculum. The first learning
goal is a prerequisite for counseling instructional faculty seeking to move through the student
version of the curriculum. This prerequisite is grounded in the idea that CI faculty cannot lead
and facilitate this learning experience for their students if they have not ventured down this path
themselves.
A summative assessment will be conducted to adequately assess participants’
performance and mastery of the learning outcomes. The following will all serve as formative
assessments for this curriculum design:
• reflection journals on learners’ positionality,
• reflections on learners’ biases and perpetuation of oppressive dynamics in instruction
10

and personal life via observations in group dialogue,
• observation of dialogue regarding learners’ cultural assets as they pertain to their
teaching and personal disposition, and
• an observation of learners’ proper use of culturally sustaining and critically conscious
practice in experiential activities.
A summative assessment will include these components and will include a reflection journal on
information taught and information learned by CI faculty upon the conclusion of the curriculum.
Learning Environment
The curriculum will be delivered at the college level and set in a nonformal environment
in a retreat-like fashion. This retreat-like environment is an intentional design targeted to
cultivate an authentic and leveled working environment. I designed the curriculum to target CI
faculty from a variety of CCC departments. CI faculty will participate in the learning experience
as a collective, enabling CI faculty colleagues to work alongside one another and learn with and
from each other as a community. CI faculty will practice culturally sustaining and critically
conscious practices by facilitating learning experiences among their peers. This will create
opportunities for CI faculty to receive feedback from their peers and training facilitators on their
use of learned practices.
Potential Issues With Power, Equity, and Inclusion
Bensimon (2018) emphasized that Whiteness is a significant reason for the long-standing
racial inequity in higher education, not the deficit-oriented achievement gap. This statement
sheds light on the reality that the rules, regulations, practices, and structure of higher education
are normed around White culture. Essentially, through the structure of higher education in the
United States, White culture is situated and valued in a way that inherently excludes students
11

from historically racially marginalized communities because of who they are. Paris (2012)
specifically highlighted that the academy creates a monocultural and monolingual society
grounded in White middle-class norms and Eurocentric instruction based on meritocracy and
power (Miranda, 2021). Faculty, regardless of their own racial identity, replicate this reality in
the color-blind, race-neutral, meritocratic ways of being and learning in their courses (Yosso et
al., 2004). Whether done intentionally or unintentionally, this pedagogical approach to education
represents a long-standing structurally racist practice that oppresses and perpetually underserves
students from historically racially marginalized communities.
This historical context suggested that CI faculty, regardless of race, have not been
provided with the space to learn and develop race-conscious, equity-based, culturally inclusive,
and sustaining educational pedagogies. Hence, I designed this curriculum dissertation to rectify
issues with power, equity, and inclusion in CCCs. More specifically, this curriculum design
creates the space for introspection where counseling instructional faculty can gain cultural
awareness of their own and others’ cultures and demonstrate an understanding of the centrality of
culture in informing individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. This process challenges
and begins to dismantle the oppressive conditions historically racially marginalized students
face.
Definition of Terms
The following terms and definitions were used in the development of this curriculum
design:
● Antiracist refers to an individual who supports antiracist policies through their actions
or expressions (Kendi, 2019).
● California Community Colleges (CCCs) are the first tier of the public higher
12

education system in California. This is an open-access public system of higher
education, with 116 colleges spread throughout the state (Miranda 2021).
● Counseling instructional (CI) faculty are the CCC faculty teaching classes in
athletics, counseling or personal development, and student support for disabled
student programs and services (Miranda, 2021).
● Critical consciousness refers to the notion that every individual is capable of
analyzing the world critically and, with proper tools, perceiving personal and social
reality as well as the contradictions in it. They can become conscious of their
perception of that reality and critically deal with it. Through this process, instructors
overcome the paternalistic teacher–student relationship (Freire, 1970).
● Culturally sustaining pedagogy pushes beyond the idea that pedagogies be more than
responsive to the culture, heritage, identities, and actions of students. It requires that
instructors adopt pedagogies that help students sustain their cultural and linguistic
identities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural norms. Culturally
sustaining pedagogy supports students’ and teachers’ multilingualism and
multiculturalism in practice and worldviews. Ultimately, culturally sustaining
pedagogy sustains linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic
project of schooling (Paris, 2012).
● Historically racially marginalized students refers to communities of students who
have historically been underrepresented, underserved, and oppressed in higher
education because of their race. In this curriculum design, “historically racially
marginalized students” is used to specifically refer to Black or African American,
Latino or Mexican American, Native American or Alaska Native, Hawaiian or Pacific
Islander, and Filipino students (Miranda, 2021). In the design of this curriculum, this
13

term honors and includes the intersectional and multiple identities with which
individuals identify.
● Race-based equity gaps refers to the racial disparities in student outcomes evident in
the California Community College system (Miranda, 2021).
Organization of the Design Blueprint
This dissertation includes five chapters. Chapter 1 consists of a conceptualization of the
statement of the problem and the importance of the problem. In addition, definitions of key terms
and concepts are introduced and explained. I explore my positionality as the designer in relation
to the curriculum alongside a power, equity, and inclusion analysis of the potential issues.
Chapter 2 provides a review of the literature and an overview of the content for this curriculum. I
synthesize the literature on culturally sustaining pedagogy, critically conscious education, and
experiential learning. Chapter 3 includes a discussion of the learner and the learning context.
Chapter 4 provides the curriculum design, goals, and outcomes. Additionally, the summative
assessment that is used for the curriculum design is explained. Lastly, Chapter 5 provides a
discussion of the implementation and evaluation plan.
About the Author
This curriculum design was personal to me as I attended a CCC and am a CI faculty
member in the CCC System. My personal experiences as a student and professional in the CCC
system informed my approach to this curriculum design. I also identify as a Black man who was
raised by a single mother from a low socioeconomic class. This family background informed my
understanding of oppressive environments. Being that I am now at a place in my life where I am
pursuing a doctoral degree from an elite private university and am a tenure track assistant
professor/counselor in a CCC, I hold significant privilege in relation to my topic. I am no longer
14

strongly connected to my prior experience as a CCC student. I have transitioned from the CCC
student community to the CCC faculty and professional community. Additionally, my master’s
degree in science in multicultural community counseling pedagogy was grounded in critically
conscious and culturally sustaining education. This prior educational experience influenced my
view of the training process for CI faculty who serve historically racially marginalized
communities in a culturally sustaining way.
This section presents critical consciousness and culturally sustaining pedagogy as the
author’s central theoretical frameworks, which informed this curriculum design. These two
theoretical frameworks represent asset-based approaches that are derived from the author’s
recognition of the cultural richness and agency of students from historically racially marginalized
communities.
Critical Consciousness
In a critically conscious education, instructors intentionally facilitate a transformational
learning experience where students cultivate tools that shape their ability to harness power over
their own mind, body, and spirit. Florence (1998) conceptualized critical consciousness as a
process where marginalized peoples take a self-reflective stance in their choices and actions and
move from object to subject. In more depth, for a marginalized individual to decolonize their
mind from the limitations and oppressive conditions derived from White supremacy, they must
embark on a journey of self-recovery that begins with a critical interrogation of the location,
identifications, and allegiances that inform their life (Florence, 1998). Tied to self-recovery, an
individual must engage in a process of renewed understanding of self and an appreciation of their
own agency and self-determination as they struggle toward self-actualization. Ultimately, from
this process, individuals choose to move against the domination and oppression of White
15

supremacy and toward freedom and liberation (Florence, 1998).
Every individual can analyze the world critically with the proper tools (Freire & Macedo,
2014). The individual can perceive personal and social reality as well as the contradictions in it,
becoming conscious of their perception of that reality and critically dealing with it (Freire et al.,
2014). Through this process, Freire (1970) asserted the paternalistic teacher–student relationship
is overcome. Moreover, Freire illustrated: “whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits
creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality” (p. 81).
Essentially, “banking education” tries “to maintain the submersion of consciousness” and
“problem-posing education . . . strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical
intervention in reality” (Freire, 1970, p. 81).
Moreover, Gay and Kirkland (2003) explained that when teachers see themselves as
people, they deepen their understanding of the contexts in which they teach, and their ability to
question their ways of knowing is as important as the mastery of techniques for instructional
effectiveness. The authors asserted that it is imperative that educators model, develop
curriculum, cultivate a classroom climate, and create expectations that communicate to
preservice and in-service teachers that reflexivity is a normal, constant, and central tenet of
being, learning, and teaching. Gay and Kirkland adopted Danielewicz’s (2001) conceptualization
of reflexivity in their stance on developing critical consciousness and self-reflection in educators.
In essence, reflexivity operationalizes critical consciousness. Danielewicz (2001)
conceptualized reflexivity as
[a]n act of self-conscious consideration that can lead people to a deepened understanding
of themselves and others, not in the abstract, but in relation to specific social
environments . . . [and] foster a more profound awareness . . . of how social contexts
16

influence who people are and how they behave. . . . It involves a person's active analysis
of past situations, events, and products, with the inherent goals of critique and revision
for the explicit purpose of achieving an understanding that can lead to change in thought
or behavior. (pp. 155–156)
Therefore, a critically conscious educator engages students in learning experiences that
promote an understanding of the societal conditions they face to realize self-liberation and
engage teachers in challenging thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate oppression and
domination while modeling reflexivity.
Moreover, to cultivate a learning environment that is conducive to developing critically
conscious learners, instructors must utilize a pedagogical approach grounded in the identity,
culture, agency, and humanity of learners, which is exemplified through culturally sustaining
pedagogy.
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
Through culturally sustaining pedagogy, instructors celebrate and normalize the culture,
heritage, identity, and existence of historically racially marginalized students (Paris, 2012).
Culturally sustaining pedagogy pushes beyond pedagogies responsive to or relevant to students’
culture, heritage, identities, and actions—it requires that instruction helps students sustain their
cultural and linguistic identity while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural norms
(Paris, 2012).
Culturally sustaining pedagogy can be employed explicitly to support multilingualism
and multiculturalism in practice for students and teachers. Ultimately, instructors adopting a
culturally sustaining pedagogy sustain linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the
democratic project of schooling (Paris, 2012).
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Paris (2012) explained that in conceptualizing a culturally sustaining pedagogy, educators
must ask: What is the purpose of education in a pluralistic society? It is significantly clear that
current policies and dominant practices do not sustain the languages and cultures of communities
of color in the United States (Paris, 2012). Arizona House Bill 2281 serves as an example of
such education policies. Paris and Alim (2014) suggested that the two most central tenets of
culturally sustaining pedagogy are: (a) the focus on the rich, diverse, and evolving nature of
students’ identities and cultural practices; and (b) the commitment to embracing students’ ability
to resist dominant discourses, beliefs, and practices while challenging the ways in which
students’ culture can also perpetuate systemic inequalities.
Paris and Alim (2014) emphasized how culturally sustaining pedagogy can be used to
create transformative spaces for asset-based pedagogies that support students and communities
of color while recognizing practices that perpetuate oppression. For example, Paris and Alim
asserted that hip-hop is a form of cultural and community practice that is critical for pedagogies
to sustain their richness. They argued that rather than dismissing problematic practices or tucking
them away from the White gaze, educators exercising a culturally sustaining pedagogy must
work with students to challenge regressive practices (e.g., homophobia, misogyny, racism) and
raise critical consciousness. The authors emphasized this would not mean defining hip-hop
superficially and irresponsibly as bad but challenging students to use the art and political form of
hip-hop in a liberatory nonoppressive art form.
Further, Ladson-Billings (2014) urged subscribers of culturally relevant pedagogies to
make the transition to a culturally sustaining pedagogy. Ladson-Billings highlighted that both
frameworks are built on the same idea of students as subjects rather than objects and challenges
educators to work through the nuanced and evolving interconnectivity between the cultural,
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political, and social world and its implications for students of color in the U.S. education system.
In her analysis of culturally relevant pedagogy, Ladson-Billings grew dissatisfied with the
seemingly static conception of culture and the lack or complete dismissal of the sociopolitical
dimensions of the work.
In summary, a culturally sustaining pedagogy makes explicit the oppressive educational
and larger societal conditions derived from White supremacy (Paris, 2012). Paris (2012) asserted
that educators who adopt a culturally sustaining pedagogy embrace and celebrate the identities,
cultures, and histories of students from historically racially marginalized communities in a way
that equips them to thrive in both their individual contexts and the dominant one.
The practical and operational components of culturally sustaining pedagogy are
frequently missing in curricula and instruction of educators seeking to address the diversity,
inclusion, and empowerment of students from historically racially marginalized communities.
Adopting a culturally sustaining pedagogy can equip practitioners to move from the theory to a
practice that actually changes their thoughts and behaviors.
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Chapter Two: Review of the Literature
This literature review includes two separate sections. The literature unveils steps,
strategies, and tenets in successful attempts to develop high-quality teachers who meet the
instructional needs of students from historically racially marginalized communities. The second
section presents an overview of the curriculum content and instructional approaches utilized to
facilitate this curriculum with CI faculty.
Prior Attempts
Attempts by educators to incorporate and sustain the cultures and identities of historically
racially marginalized students have involved including culturally representative works and
materials from communities of color in their lessons. However, these attempts to cultivate a
culturally rich and inclusive environment by honoring the histories and identities of students
often stop there. Ladson-Billings (2014) described this practice as a superficial and static way of
viewing culture. Additionally, prior attempts to train teachers to perform this meaningful work
with their students have followed in the same vein. Benevolent liberal educators tend to operate
with a general awareness of cultural and racial diversity but do not move beyond that toward
specific instructional practices that challenge and resist dominant conventions in their instruction
(Gay & Kirkland, 2014).
Curricula designed for K–12 educators to develop their pedagogical approaches to
teaching students from historically racially marginalized communities do exist. Although these
curricula include meaningful components that higher education educators can adopt in their
practice, they lack the intentionality needed to responsibly meet the instructional needs of
students from historically racially marginalized communities in higher education. A review of
the literature revealed one curriculum designed to specifically support the pedagogical approach
of community college educators seeking to meet the instructional needs of historically racially
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marginalized students.
Miranda (2021) created the year-long Equity-Minded Teaching and Learning Institute to
specifically help faculty implement equity-minded changes to their pedagogical approaches and
instructional practices. Much of Miranda’s framework resembles the approach of this curriculum
design. However, this curriculum design is much more focused on helping educators become
critically conscious so they can resist the ways they perpetuate oppressive learning practices
rather than developing their cultural and diversity fluency and awareness. Furthermore, with this
curriculum design, I sought to engage learners with what Paolo Freire (1970) coined the
“problem-posing method,” which is the antithesis of the “banking system” (p. 72). The problem-
posing method presents the teacher–student in fluid roles and engages them in dialogue where
instructors present students with problems relating to their contexts so they will feel increasingly
challenged and compelled to respond to that challenge.
Content of the Curriculum
A review of the literature suggested primary steps for displaying cultural self-awareness
and awareness of others’ cultures while developing an understanding how culture informs
individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Douglas and Nganga (2013) identified the
following steps:
1. Engage in critical reflection.
2. Adopt the problem-posing method.
3. Resolve the teacher–student contradiction.
4. Have an awareness of one’s mind, body, and spirit.
5. Develop language fluency and a culturally sustaining knowledge base.
6. Contextualize dominant discourses, practices, and beliefs.
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Additionally, Douglas and Nganga (2013) recommended that the primary steps to support
faculty in developing and implementing a critically conscious and culturally sustaining
pedagogical approach are as follows:
1. Situate existence in a historical, sociocultural context.
2. Situate one’s existence in a community’s historical, sociocultural context.
3. Resist the perpetuation of and name oppressive practices, beliefs, and discourses.
4. Continue lifelong learning and engage in a community of critical reflection to strive
for critical consciousness.
Although each set of steps primarily corresponds with their respective learning goal,
these steps are not mutually exclusive. Additionally, critical reflection serves as a recurring
central theme and practice throughout the nine other steps because this curriculum design holds
that learners cannot define their positionality within a sociocultural context without being aware
of their own assumptions and biases. In the next section, these steps are repeated as topic
headings with discussions that incorporate the accompanying literature.
Critical Reflection
Critical reflection allows an individual to consistently be aware of and challenge the ways
they perpetuate oppressive beliefs and acts while creating opportunities to implement a culturally
sustaining pedagogy and work toward critical consciousness. Furthermore, critical reflection
heightens an individual’s awareness of their automatic biases and helps them to make conscious
choices and understand how their choices impact their instruction. Douglas and Nganga (2013)
identified three interrelated actions that offer educators a space where they can examine who
they are and the knowledge they bring to teaching culturally, ethnically, and linguistically to
different populations: (a) build community; (b) create dialogic spaces; and (c) engage with
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critically reflective practice. According to the authors, these aspects further explain how critical
reflection is “an avenue to uncover their biases, beliefs and assumptions about each aspect of
diversity, students respond to prompts taken from the course readings and materials” (p. 71).
Moreover, Douglas and Nganga (2013) noted the importance of showing educators
“course materials that offer them the opportunity to understand aspects of systemic inequalities
in schools and societies as well as what they can do as teachers and leaders in their classrooms,
schools, and communities” (p. 71). This exposure allows educators to “understand aspects of
systemic inequalities in schools and societies as well as what they can do as teachers and leaders
in their classrooms, schools, and communities” (p. 71). Essentially, Douglas and Nganga
explained how having a critically reflective practice helps educators “situate their beliefs with
the current literature on aspects of diversity and to subsequently build on their own future
practice in teaching and leadership” (p. 71).
Oftentimes critical reflection and equity work are limited to theoretical understanding and
activities such as describing issues, ideas, and events; stating philosophical beliefs; and
summarizing statements made by scholars. Stronge (2002) explained the core components of
critical reflection are analytical introspection, continuous reconstruction of knowledge, and the
recurring transformation of beliefs and skills that are essential elements of self-reflection. To
engage educators in critical reflection, Stronge asserted, it is important to create high-quality
opportunities for guided practice in self-reflection. Furthermore, Stronge insisted these
approaches to learning must be cultivated and modeled by educators to set a foundation and
precedent for later educators to use in their own classrooms.
Overall, critical reflection provides an essential means through which educators can equip
themselves with the ability to break away from oppressive practices. A significant component of
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critical reflection is identifying dominant discourse, practices, and beliefs and understanding the
ways these oppressive dynamics manifest within everyone.
Problem-Posing Method
Freire (1970) explained the problem-posing method is both a pedagogical approach and
an educational philosophy. Traditionally, education systems have often viewed teachers as the
masters of all knowledge and students as their empty vessels, where teachers deposit knowledge
into the minds of the students. However, Freire termed the problem-posing method as a way of
making the student an active agent in their own learning by using newly and collaboratively
constructed knowledge to identify and act to solve problems and injustices in the world.
Further, Kumagai and Lypson (2009) detailed how faculty instructors are expected to
facilitate exchanges rather than lecture, which contrasts the banking system of education. The
authors explained how both teachers and students are “expected to model the same type of
reflective approaches” (p. 78). Teachers can implement these reflective approaches by having
“reference and background materials, thought pieces, and self-reflective exercises to use in their
groups” (p. 78). For this reason, this educational philosophy is grounded in the humanity of
learners and teachers in an educational context. Subsequently, rectifying the teacher–student
contradiction represents a central component of the problem-posing method.
Teacher–Student Contradiction
The teacher–student relationship involves either oppressive or liberatory conditions
(Freire, 1970). Freire (1970) insisted that education must begin by solving the teacher–student
contradiction by rectifying the poles of the contradiction so that both individuals are teachers and
students simultaneously. Rather than trying to fill students with knowledge, radical love demands
the use of dialogue to erase dominant positionalities because love cannot exist in a relation
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defined by domination.
In their concept of radical love, Douglas and Nganga (2013) highlighted Freire’s (1993)
emphasis on communication, critical thinking, and dialogue as central tenets of a liberating
education, which requires daily, horizontal interactions with students, colleagues, and
community members in classrooms and other spaces where educators and students interact. The
interactions become the gauge by which educators can judge their practice. Radical love
privileges the voices and perspectives of marginalized students, nondominant positionalities, and
perspectives, enabling a recasting of power differences in the spaces where educators work
(Douglas & Nganga, 2013). Douglas and Nganga (2013) contended that being intentional about
the dynamic of relationships cultivated in the classroom comprises the fabric for a liberatory and
culturally sustaining education. The authors added that educators must rectify the teacher–
student contradiction to become self-aware.
Mind, Body, and Spirit
An individual’s knowledge of their cognition, physiology, and spirit is a prerequisite for
gaining self-awareness. Garza (2010) highlighted the importance of an individual acknowledging
the forces that impact their life as a means of decolonizing their mind and spirit. Garza found that
naming the effects of colonialism and their direct impact on daily life led to a profound
introspection for participants.
Further, Garza (2010) asserted the work MAESTR@S is centered on healing, adding that
their goal is to aid their community in analyzing and identifying the conditions they face to find
solutions to those conditions. Further, Duran (2006) highlighted that the soul wound relates to
the significant interconnectivity that indigenous peoples believe exists between a person’s mind,
body, and spirit, in addition to their relationship with the community and environment.
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Therefore, Duran explained, being in touch with the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and
spirit allows for transformation and necessitates the decolonization of the full self. Connecting
with communities of people outside the self is equally as important as self-awareness.
Name It, Vocabulary, Language Development
Knowing language, being able to conceptualize, and having practical fluency in social
justice and diverse cultural practices all represent important abilities for being in touch with the
realities and conditions of people from historically racially marginalized communities (Patel,
2015). When leaders in society refuse to name the oppressive and racist systems in which
African American youths live, they erase systems of oppression, shifting focus to African
American youth, not the context in which they live. Within many educational settings, the at-risk
students are those requiring intervention, so they end up being the students who are studied,
whereas those of the dominant culture are generally not studied. This process recenters the
dominant culture as the norm (Patel, 2015).
Tuck and Yang (2014) asserted this notion gives rise to the idea that refuting injustice
and crime requires individuals in a society to name them. Educational practitioners and scholars
committed to educational justice must hold that the languages, ways of knowing, histories, and
cultures belonging to people of color are not pathological.
In summary, language fluency allows educators to communicate effectively with
themselves and with the larger community. Regardless of an educator’s intention, being
cognizant and reflective of how they interact with others is critical for understanding their own
impact on the lives of their students.
Contextualize Dominant Discourse, Practices, and Beliefs
Members of society often misunderstand the dominant discourse and ways of knowing as
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truth, which leads them to consciously and unconsciously weaponize related ideas to oppress
historically racially marginalized communities. Paris and Alim (2014) explored the idea of the
dominant discourse in a “White middle-class norm” world and asked,
[w]hat if, indeed, the goal of teaching and learning with youth of color was not ultimately
to see how closely students could perform White middle-class norms but to explore,
honor, extend, and, at times, problematize their heritage and community practices?” (p.
86)
Questions like these challenge conventional expectations and desires (Florence, 1998).
Further, Florence (1998) explored how students are much more engaged when they are
learning how to think critically through analyzing concrete components of their reality. When a
student is engaged and thinking critically, the student can see multiple views of reality to
interrogate White supremacy. Florence explained how this process decenters attention from
voices of White, male, and materially privileged students.
Thus, educators must be able to distinguish between dominant discourse and facts. As a
result of colonization, dominant discourse, practices, and beliefs have a historical and
sociocultural origin with complex and deeply entrenched roots that educators must understand.
Situating in a Historical Sociocultural Context
To avoid perpetuating oppressive conditions, educators must understand the historical
and sociocultural contexts of a given landscape. Like Tuck and Yang (2014), this curriculum
design was informed by readings of postcolonial literature and critical literature on settler
colonialism. In the context of the United States, settler colonialism refers to a triad relationship
involving the White settler (who is valued for his leadership and innovative mind), the
disappeared Indigenous peoples (whose land is valued, so they and their claims to it must be
27

extinguished), and the chattel slaves whose bodies are valuable but ownable, exploitable, and
murderable. Tuck and Yang explained that this triad serves as the basis undergirding the concept
of Whiteness in settler-colonial nation-states, and the interconnectivity of erasure, bodies, land,
and violence characterizes the permanence of settler-colonial systems.
Further, Ladson-Billings (2006) reasoned that the educational standing of Native, African
American, Latino, and Asian immigrant children in the United States necessitates their being
viewed through a lens defined by moral, sociopolitical, and historical debts. Consequently, the
authors asserted that a decontextualized view of achievement normalizes White midland upper-
class students as natural and desired. However, contextualizing the performance of students from
the perspective of an educational debt indicates an interconnectivity among socioeconomic,
political, and colonial factors that together justify White middle- and upper-class culture as
exceptional (Ladson-Billings, 2006).
Lastly, educators must see the realities of the now in a nonsuperficial way to understand
the influence and impact of history, society, and culture. Therefore, educators must also
understand how they are positioned within the historical, sociocultural landscape of dominant
discourse, practices, and beliefs to make space for the liberation of historically racially
marginalized communities.
Historical Sociocultural Context in Community
Educators must examine how their identity manifests within a given historical,
sociocultural context to understand their influence on the world. Paris and Alim (2014) explained
an understanding of this idea “allows us to see the fallacy of measuring ourselves and the young
people in our communities solely against the White middle-class norms of knowing and being
that continue to dominate notions of educational achievement” (p. 86). Further, Paris and Alim
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asserted: “[w]e are centered on contending in complex ways with the rich and innovative
linguistic, literate, and cultural practices of Indigenous American, African American, Latina/o,
Asian American, Pacific Islander, and other youth and communities of color” (p. 86).
As such, for educators to evaluate how they navigate their identities, pedagogies, and
positionalities, in addition to those of their students, they must make the connections between
these concepts explicit (Douglas & Nganga, 2013).
In summary, educators who situate themselves within a historical, sociocultural context
do so by reflecting on their positionality. In addition, knowing the historical, sociocultural
context of dominant culture alone is not sufficient to address oppression—educators must also
act upon that knowledge.
Continued Resistance
In dismantling oppressive systems and actions, educators must move beyond a theoretical
stance and resist oppressive practices, beliefs, and discourse. Paris and Alim (2014) emphasized
that in striving for educational equity as practitioners, educators must move away from centering
their pedagogies to align with linguistic, literate, and cultural hegemony. Refusal shifts the gaze
from the violated body to the violating instruments. Refusal in research makes way for other R-
words (e.g., resistance, reclamation, recovery, reciprocity, repatriation, regeneration; Tuck &
Yang, 2014).
For this reason, knowing about injustices and cultural diversity alone does not suffice.
Educators must continuously and actively resist the oppression of historically racially
marginalized communities by the dominant culture. Moreover, learning and working toward
critical consciousness and liberation involves more than a singular event.

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Critical Consciousness: Lifelong Learning in Community
The work of striving toward critical consciousness involves a lifelong journey, which is
often done in concert with other people. Teaching, learning, and knowing happen through a
community. Palmer (1998) expressed how through teaching, the teacher's role varies from
facilitator to co-learner. Being aware of the effects of colonization and oppression on their life
represents an educator’s initial step in a lifelong process (Garza, 2010), and its impact must be
felt and experienced—it must penetrate every facet of an individual’s being (i.e., their mind,
body, and spirit; Garza, 2010). Essentially, the term “antiracist” is a verb, not a destination—it
refers to the continuous actions required to resist racist policies, practices, and beliefs (Kendi,
2019). Perfection is not the goal. Rather, continued growth and humility represent the
humanizing realities of critically conscious and culturally sustaining work.

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Summary of the Curriculum Content
The literature review led to the identification of the 10 main steps for meeting the
learning goals of this curriculum design. These are summarized in Table 1. Additionally, each
step is accompanied by the requisite declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge needed
for learners to meet the learning goal. The table lists the main steps and the primary declarative
and procedural knowledge required to perform them.

Table 1
Main Steps and Required Declarative and Procedural Knowledge
Main step Declarative knowledge Procedural knowledge
Critical reflection: An
introspective process
whereby an individual
engages with the ways they
perpetuate and resist
oppressive ways of being.
Define terms: Imperative in
the critical reflection
process, such as feedback,
vulnerability, and emotions.
What critical reflection looks
like and how to develop a
community of critical
reflection with emotional
feedback.
Develop a practical
understanding of critical
consciousness and culturally
sustaining pedagogical
practices.
Define terms: Critical
consciousness and culturally
sustaining practices and
oppressive conditions.
Apply the principle of critical
consciousness and culturally
sustaining instructional
practices to design spaces
that meet the needs of
students from historically
racially marginalized
communities.
Create culturally sustaining
and critically conscious
instruction and instructional
environments
Define terms: Critically
conscious and culturally
sustaining instructional
practices.
Using the principles of
culturally sustaining and
critically conscious
instructional practices to
create a lesson.

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The knowledge types articulated in Table 1 are condensed and used as the foundation for
the curriculum design in Chapter 4. Chapter 3 addresses the learning environment and the learner
characteristics that were considered when designing the curriculum.
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Chapter Three: The Learning Environment and the Learners
Chapter 3 presents the learning environment and learners’ characteristics related to this
curriculum design. Smith and Ragan (2005) defined a learning environment as
a system in which the instruction will be implemented and is composed of all factors that
affect and are affected by the learning that takes place: learners, instructional materials,
the teacher/trainer, instructional equipment, the instructional facilities, and the
community or organization. (p. 49)
In more depth, the learning environment section of this chapter is characterized by a
discussion of the learning context with respect to the curriculum facilitator’s characteristics, the
physical environment that is conducive to achieving the curriculum’s goals, the location of the
curriculum within existing educational programs, and the learning climate.
Smith and Ragan (2005) defined learners as the target audience or target populations of a
curriculum design. The authors asserted learners’ analysis is important to consider as this
knowledge is critical to designing instruction that is effective and interesting to learners. Thus,
the learners’ section of this chapter provides a discussion of the learner characteristics and the
learner’s requisite cognitive ability. In particular, the chapter presents the learner’s general
aptitude, prior knowledge, general world knowledge, specific prior knowledge, physiological
characteristics, affective characteristics, and social characteristics. Ultimately, Chapter 3 outlines
the implications of the learning environment and learner characteristics for design.
Description of the Learning Environment
In Chapter 1, the first part of the learning context was explored through the analysis of
learning needs based on the innovation model (Smith & Ragan, 2005). I conducted a needs
assessment and concluded a need existed for innovation to appropriately address the problem of
33

practice. Chapter 3 addresses the second major component of the learning context, which is an
analysis of the learning system in which the instruction will occur (Smith & Ragan, 2005). As
previously stated, I designed this curriculum to engage learners and help them move from theory
to practice. Thus, the learning environment must be conducive to the purpose of this curriculum
design. Further, the learning environment must be comfortable and welcoming for learners. As
such, it must enable learners to challenge their beliefs, actions, and ways of knowing. The
following section further details the specifics of a comfortable learning environment.
Teacher, Trainer, and Facilitator Characteristics
The facilitator must engage learners in critically conscious and culturally sustaining
learning experiences that strengthen learners to actualize these educational dispositions within
their professional learning content (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Hooks, 1998; Paris, 2012). Thus, the
facilitator must possess a decolonizing spirit that emerged from their journey toward critical
consciousness (Garza, 2010; Patel, 2015; Tuck & Yang, 2014). Facilitators must also be aware of
and acknowledge the oppression of historically racially marginalized students while having
experience with interrogating systems of oppression (Hooks, 1998; Tuck & Yang, 2014). A
theoretical stance on this work is insufficient. Additionally, to model the spirit of this curriculum,
the facilitator must approach education work in a culturally humble way and be grounded in
subverting power dynamics by understanding their positionality (Douglas & Nganga, 2013;
Freire, 1970). Lastly, the facilitator must possess educator-level competency with a computer. I
designed this curriculum to build these skills.
Existing Curricula and Programs
I designed this curriculum intentionally as a professional training for CI faculty to
facilitate personal growth, guidance, and counseling courses within the counseling departments
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throughout the CCCs. This curriculum will be presented in a nonformal format because it will
include specific learning objectives and is attached to an organization. I designed this curriculum
for institutions that have cultivated cultures where the professionals are committed to equity,
diversity, inclusion, and excellence. These inherent qualities will ensure counseling faculty
participate in this training. The curriculum will be informally presented because degree or
certificate applicable course credit will not be allowed, and the learning activities are not self-
guided. Thus, I designed this curriculum for a stand-alone course serving CI faculty within
counseling departments at CCCs.
As a secondary future endeavor, I will modify this curriculum design and adapt it for
counselor development programs and higher education or student affairs programs. Additionally,
in future endeavors, I will adapt pieces of this curriculum design to incorporate them into teacher
preparation and credentialing programs. Because this curriculum design represents an
educational and social worldview in addition to a pedagogical approach, its effects can be far-
reaching throughout various educational institutions. Essentially, it encourages people in learning
contexts to engage in antioppressive loving relationships, which reside at the core of liberating
educational learning experiences.
Available Equipment and Technology
The in-person format of this curriculum requires one laptop with internet access, internet,
and a projector for the facilitator’s use. Several large writing pads, sticky notes, and markers will
be needed for group use. Each participant will need individual journals and writing utensils.
Although delivery does not require a learning management system, a Microsoft suite will be of
use. All other technology needs can be accessed through internet access, such as access to
Google, Survey Monkey, Kahoot, and others. To ensure accessibility, curriculum facilitators will
35

work with the contracting college to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Compliance for Colleges and Universities standards for participants in need of accommodations.
For the online adaptation of this curriculum, more technology, equipment, and software
will be needed. In addition to the technology, equipment, and software required for the in-person
format of this curriculum, each participant will need access to a private workstation, computer or
laptop with internet access, microphone and audio capabilities, and constant internet access.
With regard to software, each participant will need a licensed Zoom account and a working
Gmail account to access Google Drive, or a working employer-issued email will suffice.
Classroom Facilities and Learning Climate
The classroom facilities for this learning design will meet the needs of learners with
varying needs, including and not limited to ADA Compliance for Colleges and Universities. The
room will need to comfortably accommodate 35 participants in total, with space for wheelchair
accessibility and seating for individuals of various physical sizes. Learners will need a
comfortable seating arrangement in an open-spaced room to allow for introspective and
interrelational work. Facilitators should arrange the room primarily in a circular or square format
so participants do not have their backs to one another. Each participant will need a writing
platform, such as a portable desk, table, or another hard surface, much like a traditional
classroom. Each writing surface and desk will need to be modular to allow for grouping
flexibility and for experiential learning activities. Although not a requirement, learners should
wear comfortable attire. Learners will also need a platform to write on.
To ensure a healthy and socially just learning environment, school leaders and school
stakeholders must be committed to educational and systemic equity for all students, with a
specific commitment to the equity of students from historically racially marginalized
36

communities. Leadership must explicitly commit to racial equity within their institutions and
have cultivated cultures where professionals at-large are committed to serving students equitably.
Ultimately, the mission of the organization should be to engage learners in dialogue and enact
meaningful change in learning contexts to enhance the schooling experiences of students from
historically racially marginalized communities through personal and professional healing.
Learner Characteristics
The four major components of learner characteristics for the curriculum are discussed in
this section. To begin, I explore the cognitive and psychological characteristics. Subsequently, I
address the affective characteristics and conclude with an examination of the social
characteristics.
Cognitive Characteristics
For this curriculum, I treated the learners’ cognitive characteristics as general
characteristics and specific prior knowledge. Smith and Ragan (2005) conceptualized cognitive
characteristics as including aptitude, language development, reading level, and cognitive
processing styles. Specific prior knowledge refers to content knowledge required to effectively
and meaningfully engage with the material presented in the curriculum (Smith & Ragan, 2005).
General Characteristics
When designing this curriculum, I considered general and specific learner aptitudes.
These characteristics are critical for curriculum designers to take into account as it enables them
to design and create instruction that meets learners’ needs. By being intentional with these
considerations, I designed a more effective, engaging, and meaningful learning experience.

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General Aptitudes
Learners who will engage in this instruction are college CI faculty who, at minimum,
have a master’s degree. Learners have discipline-specific expertise in counseling, including both
theoretical and practical subject matter. Additionally, learners have college-level understanding
of the English language, composition, reading, and critical thinking. Furthermore, due to their
level of graduate training and professional experience, I assumed that learners would be able to
interpret, extract, and make meaning from content presented and derived from discussions.
Additionally, I assumed that learners would want to learn and have the capacity for learning.
Thus, the learners of this curriculum have the general aptitudes needed to meaningfully engage
with this curriculum.
Specific Aptitudes
The specific aptitudes required of counseling faculty engaging with this curriculum are
the ability and willingness to critically reflect and engage with the curriculum in a vulnerable and
honest way. This will enable learners to begin uncovering their biases, assumptions, and beliefs
about the students they teach who are culturally, ethnically, and linguistically different. Such
engagement will enable learners to challenge the context that informs their way of knowing
(Douglas & Nganga, 2013). As this curriculum will be facilitated in a group, learners must also
critically reflect and interact as members of the larger learning community. Essentially, the
process of this work is not only intrapersonal but interpersonal. Learners will obtain feedback
from and give feedback to their peers. Hence, the ability to self-regulate and have self-awareness
is key.
Prior Knowledge
This curriculum will build on learners’ general world knowledge and specific prior
38

knowledge. To make learning effective and meaningful to CI faculty, I designed this curriculum
to incorporate learners’ local contexts. Learners should be predisposed to this work because of
the school’s mission. However, as some learners may have limited knowledge regarding the
curriculum’s content and others may have more extensive knowledge, I considered all learners’
prior knowledge. This consideration during the design phase will enable instruction and activities
that are challenging and doable for learners. In other words, as Lev Vygotsky asserted, the
content will be within the learners’ zone of proximal development (Schunk, 2020).
General World Knowledge
In alignment with the conceptual framework of this curriculum, I assumed learners would
bring with them knowledge and experiences that are vital to the facilitation of this curriculum.
This puts into practice Freire’s (1970) conceptualization and denouncing of the banking system,
in which educators view learners as empty vessels. I anticipated each learner would bring with
them their own understanding and experiences regarding race, power, oppression, positionality,
diversity, equity, inclusion, and pedagogy. Each learner's experience is critical for their own
professional and personal development, and it is instrumental for the professional and personal
development of their peers within the learning environment. Regardless of the extent of an
individual’s self-awareness, cultural competency, and positionality in the world, they bring with
them a wealth of experiences and knowledge, all of which are meaningful for the collective
group of learners. Essentially, both learners that identify with historically racially marginalized
communities and learners who identify with the dominant culture provide rich and necessary
general world knowledge that will significantly contribute to the curriculum’s effectiveness.
Specific Prior Knowledge
During the design phase, I did not assume learners would have prior knowledge of
39

culturally sustaining pedagogy and critical consciousness. The definitions and practical
implementation of these pedagogical approaches and dispositions will be introduced through the
course content. The instructor will facilitate activities that will help learners engage with and
ground their dispositions within these conceptual frameworks and from a practical stance within
these ways of being. Although it is not imperative to the facilitation and effectiveness of this
curriculum, learners must have specific prior knowledge regarding the inequitable treatment of
students and people from historically racially marginalized communities within the U.S.
education system and broader U.S. society. This will enable the group to work toward the
common goal of enhancing learning experiences and outcomes for historically racially
marginalized students and not necessarily spend time persuading learners of the reality of
inequities. I did not design this curriculum to persuade learners that inequitable treatment of
historically racially marginalized students and people in the United States exists within the
educational system. As such, curriculum facilitators should assume that learners will have a
varying understanding of the problem of practice and its context.
Physiological Characteristics
Learner accommodations will adhere to the ADA Compliance for Colleges and
Universities guidelines for supporting learners who are visually or auditorily impaired or need
wheelchair accessibility. When made aware beforehand, facilitators will work with the
employer-offered accommodations to meet the learner’s needs. This is vital as learners will need
to be able to move around the classroom. As learners will be CI faculty, they will possess a vast
range of professional experiences, ranging from recent master’s-level graduates to those on the
cusp of retirement. Learners’ ages will range widely. They will possess the socioemotional
health and maturity needed to participate and be vulnerable in stressful discussions and
40

experiential learning activities. Learners will generally be in good health. Due to the intensity of
some of the exercises, mental health follow-ups and referrals to district-provided health plans
will be made available to learners. As good instructional practice, instructors will provide
frequent breaks, allowing learners to move about the room, take a walk, or engage in any brief
activity that allows them to take care of themselves.
Affective Characteristics
Learners’ attitudes about engaging with the curriculum will vary across all counseling
faculty. Although the curriculum’s construction differs from what many CI faculty have
experienced previously, they will find much of the content areas related to the analysis of
diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical reflection familiar. Thus, learners’ reactions to this
curriculum will likely mirror those related to how these content areas show up in professional
work and personal daily lives. In other words, if learners’ affect is flat, then they are likely to
engage with the instruction with a flat affect. In contrast, if learners engaged enthusiastically in
their prior experiences, they will likely do the same with this curriculum.
Learners’ motivation to share their personal and professional experiences and emotions in
an authentic and vulnerable way may differ from their affect while engaging with the curriculum.
CI faculty may be inexperienced or hesitant with processing their authentic thoughts and
emotions with their colleagues regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion for fear of retaliation or
judgment. In turn, this may inform learners’ anxiety levels. Thus, the facilitator must create an
environment that is supportive of all learners’ growth while maintaining and explicitly
communicating parameters around confidentiality.
Social Characteristics
I grounded this curriculum in learners’ social characteristics, adopting a dialogical
41

orientation as the primary pedagogical approach to facilitation. This approach ensured learners’
social characteristics were of utmost importance. The curriculum design includes Smith and
Ragan’s (2005) social characteristics within the instructional process: peer relationships, feelings
toward authority, tendencies toward cooperation or competition, socioeconomic background,
racial/ethnic backgrounds, and role models. Modeling also plays a vital role in the effectiveness
of this curriculum. Gay and Kirkland (2003) highlighted how learning must be cultivated and
modeled by educators, which sets a foundation and precedent for educators to use in their own
classrooms. Hence, this curriculum requires the facilitator to model being an active learner in all
of the activities and tasks. As such, the facilitator is responsible for navigating between the role
of facilitator, model, and learner.
Design Implications of the Learning Environment and Learner Characteristics
Consideration of the learning environment and learners’ characteristics significantly
influenced the design of this curriculum. Particularly, I aimed for this curriculum to introduce a
learning paradigm shift regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion instruction by engaging
learners in a process-oriented, interpersonal, intrapersonal, experiential, and critically reflective
learning experience. These characteristics informed the curriculum’s content and the facilitator’s
strategies. Although many learners understand the banking approach of instruction, through this
curriculum’s practical disposition of learning and instruction, it is thought that CI faculty will be
much more engaged in the content. The structure of the curriculum can lead to fatigue,
anxiousness, and increased cognitive load. Thus, the facilitator must be aware of the learners’
well-being, even more so if this curriculum is facilitated remotely because participants can
simply turn off their cameras. Connecting the content to each learner’s local context should
enable learners to associate the content with their personal and professional experiences.
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Chapter Four: The Curriculum
Chapter 4 provides a review of this curriculum’s purpose, outcomes, and the components
of the summative assessment. Two additional sections of this chapter include a curriculum
analysis that includes media selection and a lesson analysis. The curriculum analysis begins with
a cognitive task analysis of the main task to be learned, as indicated in the learning goal.
Curriculum Purpose
The purpose of this curriculum design is to engage CCC CI faculty in a learning
experience that will equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to adopt a culturally
sustaining pedagogy and provide a critically conscious education. The aim is for CI faculty to
develop the ability to critically reflect on their teaching practices and the ways they engage in
their local contexts.
Curriculum Outcomes
I designed this curriculum concurrently with another curriculum to address life skills for
first-year historically racially marginalized students (Ramirez, 2021). I intended for the student
version of this curriculum to be implemented by CCC counseling instructors in their counseling,
guidance, and personal growth courses. Thus, CI faculty—who themselves will have completed
this curriculum—will be able to address student needs in a thoughtful and intentional way that
reflects the needs of historically marginalized students. The intended outcomes of this
curriculum design are twofold:
1. CI faculty will display cultural awareness of their own and others’ cultures while
demonstrating an understanding of the centrality of culture in informing individuals’
cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.
2. CI faculty will be able to adopt culturally sustaining and critically conscious tools in
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the facilitation of the student version of the curriculum.
Formative Assessment
The formative assessment includes a collection of written and oral artifacts collected by
the curriculum facilitator pertaining to learners’ engagement and relative mastery of culturally
sustaining pedagogy and critical consciousness. These may include the following:
• a reflection journal on learners’ positionality,
• reflections on learners’ biases and perpetuation of oppressive dynamics in instruction
and personal life via observations of group dialogue,
• observation of dialogue regarding learners’ cultural assets as it pertains to their
teaching and personal disposition, and
• an observation of learners properly using culturally sustaining and critically conscious
educational tools in experiential activities with their peers.
Summative Assessment
The summative assessment includes the previously mentioned assessment measures in
addition to a reflection journal on what information was taught and what information was learned
by CI faculty after completing the curriculum.
Cognitive Task Analysis (Information Processing Analysis)
I conducted a cognitive task analysis (CTA), which served as a critical step in designing a
curriculum that would help CI faculty incorporate a culturally sustaining pedagogical and
critically conscious disposition in their professional work. Clark et al. (2008) conceptualized
CTA as a strategy for capturing a description of knowledge that experts use to perform complex
tasks. This knowledge is made up of what Clark et al. (2008) classified as conceptual and
automated knowledge, which is otherwise understood as unconscious and procedural. The CTA
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conducted for this curriculum design consisted of two components, bootstrapping by a literature
search to identify a preliminary list of the main steps and an interview with a subject-matter
expert to confirm the main steps and explore the specific actions and decisions within the steps.
Smith and Ragan described this latter step as information processing analysis, which involves
breaking a learning goal into its individual steps to identify what learners need to learn to attain
and perform the goal.
I interviewed a graduate-level professor as the subject-matter expert for the CTA of this
curriculum design. The professor taught from a critically conscious and culturally sustaining
pedagogical disposition and trained counselors to serve multicultural and historically
underserved communities. The results of the bootstrapping literature review and interviews are
as follows.
● Objective: What is the goal of the task?
Participants will begin to develop a critically conscious and culturally sustaining
pedagogical disposition in an effort to facilitate the student-oriented curriculum
designed by Ramirez (2021).
● Cue: How do you know when to start it?
This curriculum design will begin once the student rendition of the course designed
by Ramirez (2021) is offered during the following term.
● Condition: What is the context in which the task is performed?
This professional development curriculum will be performed via in-person
instruction.
● Standards: How fast do they have to do it? How accurately is it measured?
Learners have 8 weeks, beginning with a 2-day intensive training to complete the
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professional development curriculum and demonstrate their competency through
critical conversations, which can be measured by their participation in and depth of
introspection during dialogue and experiential activities and through an analysis of
their ability to properly use culturally sustaining and critically conscious educational
tools.
● Equipment: What supplies and materials does the task require?
A physical classroom environment and supplies for writing in groups such as a large
pad of paper and a journal are needed to perform this task.
● What are the major steps?
The major steps provide a process for developing a critically conscious and culturally
sustaining pedagogical disposition. In addition, the analysis of relevant literature and
interviews with relevant academic and practitioner experts suggested that the steps
will support CI faculty as they develop a critically conscious and culturally sustaining
pedagogical disposition. The major steps have been ordered in the sequence of
performance:
1. Engage in critical self-reflection of positionality and how it influences
emotions, cognitions, and behavior (LIT).
2. Develop a knowledge base of critical consciousness and culturally sustaining
pedagogical practices (LIT).
3. Apply critically reflective skills and critically conscious and culturally
sustaining pedagogical practices in the development of instruction and
instructional environments (LIT).
I used these major steps to create the units of this curriculum design.
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Overview of the Units
An initial review of the literature and an interview with a subject-matter expert showed
that, in an authentic learning environment, the steps listed in the previous section should be
performed in sequence to ensure effective instructional design. Each step is moderately complex,
which requires prerequisite knowledge that will vary among learners. Learners’ lived
experiences serve as much of the prerequisite knowledge needed to engage with the steps.
However, the degree to which learners must critically reflect upon and engage in dialogic
practice with community members may be new to them. To ensure adequate time for learners to
engage with this curriculum, a novel approach to each task will be taught as its own unit. The
next section provides a description of the curriculum design units that were derived from the
main steps.
List of Units
Based on the CTA, I identified the following major units of instruction:
● Unit 1: Critical Reflection. Engage in critical self-reflection of positionality and how
it influences emotions, cognitions, and behavior.
● Unit 2: Critical Consciousness and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Practices.
Develop a knowledge base of critical consciousness and culturally sustaining
pedagogy.
● Unit 3: Application to Instruction. Apply critically reflective skills, critical
consciousness, and culturally sustaining pedagogical practices to develop instruction
and instructional environments.

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Visual Overview of the Units
Table 2 shows the units of instruction and learning outcomes for this curriculum.

Table 2
Learning Outcomes and Units of Instruction
Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3
Critical reflection

Critical consciousness and
culturally sustaining
pedagogy
Application to instruction
Learning outcomes
Engage in critical reflection.

Develop a practical
understanding of critical
consciousness and
culturally sustaining
pedagogy.
Create culturally sustaining
and critically conscious
instruction and
instructional
environments.

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Scope and Sequence Table
Smith and Ragan (2005) identified and described the criticality of the scope and sequence
chart as a foundation curriculum tool that organizes curriculum outcomes against units of
instruction. The scope refers to what content is being taught, and the sequence identifies the
planning of instruction for each curriculum unit. Table 3 visually represents the organization of
instruction to achieve the curriculum objectives.

Table 3
Scope and Sequence Table for the Curriculum
Outcomes
Unit 1:
Critical
reflection
Unit 2:
Culturally
sustaining and
critically conscious
pedagogy
Unit 3:
Application
to
instruction
Summative
evaluation
Engage in critical
reflection.
P R R M
Develop a practical
understanding of
critical
consciousness and
culturally
sustaining
pedagogical
practices.
I R R M
Create culturally
sustaining and
critically conscious
instruction and
instructional
environments.
I R R M

Note. P = preview; I = introduce; R = reinforce; M = master.
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Delivery Media Selection
This section addresses the role of media in instruction and includes an examination of the
framework that informs the media selected to deliver instruction for this curriculum design.
Mayer and Alexander (2016) proposed the multimedia instruction hypothesis in which they
contended that instructional messages that contain both words and visuals can promote learning.
However, to promote learning using multimedia, instructors must follow the principles of
learning sciences and not arbitrarily utilize multimedia, as this could lead to negative learning
outcomes.
The dual channels principle, limited capacity principle, and the active processing
principle together encompass how meaningful multimedia instruction works. According to the
dual channels principle, learners process words and pictures through separate channels
(Baddeley, 1986; Paivio, 1990). The limited capacity principle states that learners can only
engage in a limited amount of cognitive processing in either channel at a time. This reality
further supports the active processing principle, which states that effective and efficient learning
happens when learners engage in appropriate cognitive processing during learning—meaning
they select relevant words and pictures for more in-depth processing, and they organize selected
words and pictures into coherent mental representations (Fiorella & Mayer, 2015). Thus,
multimedia instruction must align with the coherence principle, which highlights the importance
of only including words or pictures that contribute to an understanding of the intended message
to avoid extraneous processing (Mayer & Fiorella, 2014).
Additionally, Mayer (2001) recommended following the redundancy principle to reduce
extraneous load. According to the principle, students learn better from animation and narration
than from both of those modalities and the addition of on-screen text, which can cause
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extraneous load (Mayer, 2001). These principles provided the framework for the instruction
performed in accordance with this curriculum, which was designed to engage learners in
complex learning while avoiding extraneous processing.
General Instructional Platform Selection in Terms of Affordances
Clark et al. (2010) emphasized three key considerations for media selection. These three
key restrictions included access, consistency, and cost. These considerations led to the
determination that in-person instruction in a physical learning environment is critical and ideal
for delivering this curriculum design. Digital media presentations and video clips, however, can
complement in-person instruction. The following considerations provide supporting details for
this decision.
Access
Access involves questions about who and how many learners can access a curriculum and
where they will do so (Clark et al., 2010). Delivering instruction through in-person and online
media platforms, such as Zoom, presents several opportunities for access. In-person instruction
reduces the need for additional instructional materials, such as access to learning management
systems and computer access. It also reduces the technology adjustments needed for learners
with varying abilities. Online media platforms allow learners from various locations to
congregate in one space as long as they have a laptop with internet and Zoom access.
Consistency
For efficacy, this curriculum design requires consistent delivery of particular content.
Mainly, instructors must consistently conceptualize key concepts such as critical consciousness
and culturally sustaining pedagogy to all learners because this delivery represents the primary
objective of this curriculum. However, as each learner will have varying prior knowledge and the
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content will apply in varying ways, the conceptualization of the terms must be consistent.
Additionally, instructors must consistently conceptualize the steps to achieve the goals of this
curriculum to achieve the goals and evaluate each learner’s performance.
Cost
In deciding the media format of this curriculum design, I explored the costs of in-person
live instruction versus an online media format. Costs associated with live in-person instruction
included a facilitator fee, transportation to and from the respective campus seeking to deliver the
curriculum, and fees associated with the campus classroom. Additionally, fees associated with CI
faculty attending the training must be considered. Costs associated with delivering instruction
through an online format included a facilitator fee, the cost of the online platform and learning
management system, and internet and computer access for learners.
Specific Instructional Platform Selection in Terms of Restrictions
Clark et al. (2010) emphasized three key restrictions that inform media selection. These
three key restrictions included the following:
1. Conceptual authenticity, which involves the representation of the required conditions
for learners to apply new knowledge.
2. Immediate feedback refers to the synchronous feedback delivered when a complex
task is being learned.
3. Special sensory requirements refers to sensory information beyond visual and aural
senses that are required for the instruction method.
Table 4 shows the key considerations that informed the media selection for this
curriculum design.

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Table 4
Key Considerations for Media Selection
Key consideration Media considerations
Conceptual authenticity This curriculum requires conceptual
authenticity to actualize learner transfer of
knowledge learned.
Immediate feedback The curriculum requires that learners be
provided immediate feedback throughout
experiential activities, critical conversations,
and group processing.
Special sensory requirements The curriculum requires learners’ have
sensory awareness of their feelings during
experiential and reflective activities.

Client Preferences or Specific Conditions of the Learning Environment
The college seeking to deliver this curriculum will influence decisions about media use.
The priorities related to effectiveness and efficiency that guided this curriculum design may or
may not align with the college’s perspectives on efficiency and effectiveness. Colleges often
operate with limited time, space, and finances. Hence, the college’s priorities will influence
whether the instruction is delivered in an online format, in-person within a physical environment,
or using a hybrid method. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic would have led most schools
to opt for an online format. The college for which this curriculum was designed more often than
not leaves the curriculum delivery format up to the instructor’s discretion.
Specific Media Choices
For the delivery of this curriculum design, I chose instructor-led facilitation in a physical
classroom environment because of the capacity for this method to produce conceptual
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authenticity, which is vital for the transfer of knowledge among learners. Although features of
online modalities may be more cost effective or expand accessibility, I determined the learning
costs associated with online learning are too steep. To increase consistency and accessibility for
diverse representation in media, video clips and digital presentations can be added to in-person
instruction. Table 5 shows the purpose and benefit of each media selection for this curriculum
design.

Table 5
Media Choices in Preparing Critically Conscious Counseling Instructional Faculty in California
Community Colleges

Media Purpose Benefits
Instructor led The instructor will provide learners
with guided instruction on the
curriculum content. The instructor
will also facilitate critical
conversations and experiential
learning activities.
Frequent feedback and direction
will be provided to learners to
support understanding and
challenge learners to think more
critically. Students will be able to
ask questions, process
information in a community, and
engage in a community of support
as facilitated by the instructor.
This is the most cost-effective
media selection.
Video clips Video clips will be used to present
demonstrations and context for
concepts explored.
Learners will be able to see models
and examples of concepts taught
for consistency.
Digital
presentation
Digital presentations through
PowerPoint, Google Slides, or
Canva will be utilized to manage
text, pictures, and videos.
This media promotes access and
consistency for learning.

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General Instructional Methods Approach
Designing a curriculum with the goal of developing a culturally sustaining and critically
conscious pedagogical disposition among learners calls for intentional and careful considerations
for instruction. Theoretical foundations for this curriculum design followed sociocultural,
transfer-of-learning, and cognitive load theoretical approaches. Additionally, a central tenet of
this curriculum design involved the view of learning as a collaborative and experiential process.
Curriculum facilitators of this curriculum must create opportunities for learners to continuously
engage in critical conversations and reflect on the self and other members of the learning
community to begin developing the critical consciousness needed to adopt a culturally sustaining
pedagogical disposition. Clark et al. (2010) identified this central tenet in a discussion of the
seven principles of guided experiential learning, which require that all lessons include the
following: objectives, reasons for learning, an overview, conceptual knowledge, a demonstration
of the procedure, part- and whole-task practice of procedures with corrective feedback, and
competency-based tests that are challenging and include reactions and learning performance.
These principles increase a learner’s ability to transfer learning from theory to practice.
Carpenter (2012) acknowledged the limitations of retaining knowledge for the purpose of
regurgitation on a test. The author analyzed how testing can help learners retain information for
the purpose of application and concluded testing can enhance the transfer of knowledge;
however, it varies across temporal contexts, test formats, and knowledge domains. Ultimately,
testing in this curriculum design is oriented toward supporting learners’ abilities to move beyond
talking about equitable practices to begin implementing them in their professional contexts.
Kirschner et al. (2006) suggested that learners have a limited amount of working
memory, which can lead to cognitive overload and decrease their ability to process complex
55

information. Furthermore, Kirshner et al. presented strategies that curriculum designers can
utilize, such as cognitive schemata, to limit a learner’s extraneous load on their cognitive
working memory. Choi et al. (2014) further presented the idea that learners’ physical
environments can impact their cognitive load and the effectiveness of instruction. These realities
make cognitive load critical for the effectiveness of this curriculum design. As learners have
limited working memory, instructional design must allow learners to digest information in a
meaningful way without creating cognitive overload. The physical environment of this learning
context is not overstimulating and is conducive to the learning process and goals. I designed this
curriculum design to encourage learners to get out of their minds and into their bodies and spirits
to limit cognitive overload.
Vygotsky (1980) theorized that learners’ social interactions are foundational to the
development of their cognitions, beliefs, cultural values, and ways of knowing. Furthermore,
through sociocultural theory, Vygotsky suggested that, in the context of the classroom, student
learning is a collaborative process through which knowledge is coconstructed. This curriculum
design is informed by this reality. I held that learners are experts in their own lived experiences,
so this curriculum asks facilitators to rely on learners’ prior knowledge and experiences as a
means to coconstructing knowledge while creating more equity-oriented cognitions, cultural
values, beliefs, and ultimately behaviors.
Subsequently, I applied generative and supplantive strategies to this curriculum design.
Generative strategies encourage learners to activate their prior knowledge of particular content
areas, which further engages them in the subject matter (Smith & Ragan, 2005). Additionally,
this curriculum design employs supplantive strategies, such as scaffolded instruction. This allows
learners to build the skills and knowledge needed to steadily and competently gain a
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comprehensive and intimate understanding of the subject matter.
Additionally, as previously mentioned in Chapter 3, I considered learners’ prior
knowledge and characteristics when designing the critical instructional approaches of this
curriculum. The grounding of instructional strategies in learners’ prior knowledge capitalizes on
the background knowledge learners already have stored in their long-term memory. Thus, the
development of new knowledge will be less taxing on cognitive load. Ultimately, the choices to
use experiential learning, ground instruction in learners’ prior knowledge, and scaffold
instruction will better enable learners to transfer newly acquired knowledge.
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Chapter Five: Implementation and Evaluation Plan
Chapter 5 focuses on the criticality and structure of the training evaluation. As the
training is aimed at enabling CCC CI faculty to engage in critical reflection and apply culturally
sustaining and critically conscious tools in their instructional practices, data must be collected
and evaluated to ensure that the training provides value to all stakeholders. The training program
must have clear objectives, be intentionally planned, and be monitored during implementation
(Kirpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016) to inform future trainings designed to dismantle oppressive
practices and humanize learning experiences for students from historically racially marginalized
communities.
Implementation Plan
Acceptance and adoption of this training will vary by participants. Hence,
implementation of this curriculum design must be intentional, planned, and strategic (Smith &
Ragan, 2005). Evaluation of learners’ implementation of the content will occur throughout the
training, with follow-up after completion. The evaluation of the training’s usefulness and
effectiveness will focus on participants’ implementation of culturally sustaining and critically
conscious practices and persistent use of critical reflection in their practice, particularly as it
relates to facilitating the curriculum designed by Ramirez (2021).
The first training will commence in Fall 2022, with no more than 15 faculty members
enrolled. Assessment data from the initial training will be reviewed to improve the training’s
design and delivery. Formative assessments will be critical to the review because it will provide
feedback and insight in real-time. This will inform and model how the student and teacher
contradiction is rectified and will provide feedback on ways to improve the curriculum design.
Space and support will be provided for CCC CI faculty to work through how they plan to
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implement the training content in their practice. Learners’ end-of-the-training reflection will also
provide feedback on how to improve the curriculum design and delivery. Lastly, as this training
is being designed concurrently with Ramirez (2021), a focus group will be conducted midway
through learners’ participation in Ramirez’s training to identify their preparedness and self-
efficacy with that curriculum.
Evaluation Plan
Curriculum Purpose, Need, and Outcomes
The prevalent race-based equity gaps throughout the CCCs with regard to student course
success rate, retention rate, transfer-level math and English completion rate, and educational goal
completion (Miranda, 2021) represent key problems this curriculum was designed to address. I
aimed to engage CCC CI faculty in a critically reflective experiential training for the purpose of
developing culturally sustaining and critically conscious skills that would enable them to better
build humanizing and inclusive learning spaces for historically racially marginalized students.
Ultimately, this will equip participants with the prerequisite knowledge and ability to facilitate
the curriculum designed by Ramirez (2021), which aims to develop the life-skills of first-year
historically racially marginalized students.
Evaluation Framework
This training will be evaluated utilizing the New World Kirkpatrick model, which
reverses the chronology of the four levels from the previous Kirkpatrick model (Kirkpatrick &
Kirkpatrick, 2016). The focus on Level 4 results leads to a more comprehensive approach to
evaluating the training. Level 3 measures participants’ ability to transfer the use of learned
culturally sustaining and critically conscious tools when facilitating the student version of this
training developed by Ramirez (2021). Level 2 will inform what additional training or supports
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are required for CCC CI faculty to engage in critical reflection and develop proper use of
culturally sustaining and critically conscious tools in their instruction. Lastly, designing a
training that examines the extent to which the training is meaningful and effective to participants
practice will be examined in Level 1.
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) explained Level 4 of the Kirkpatrick model pertains
to the reason why the training is performed, which ties the performance of the training to desired
curriculum outcomes. The authors added leading indicators are the internal and external
performance of behaviors and understanding of knowledge competencies that contribute to the
specified curriculum outcomes. Examination of leading indicators illustrates that critical
behaviors are on track, provides updates and data to stakeholders, serves as motivation for
curriculum participants, and highlights the success of the training (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick,
2016).
Short-term observations and measurements, such as data collected from participants,
students, and participants’ respective counseling departments, will be used to indicate that the
curriculum achieves the desired outcomes. Table 6 shows the leading indicators, metrics, and
methods that inform progress.

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Table 6
Indicators, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes
Outcome Metrics Methods
External outcomes
Increased CCC CI faculty
involvement in other
professional
development activities
that relate to diversity,
equity, and inclusion as
both participants and
facilitators

Number of CCC CI faculty
participating and offering
faculty learning experience
activities that relate to
diversity, equity, and
inclusion.
Data collected from faculty
responses during learning
community semester check-in
with curriculum facilitator.
Increased perception of
students from
historically
marginalized
communities that the
respective CCC is an
inclusive environment.
Increase in the number of
positive student comments on
the CCC being a racially
inclusive environment.
Data collected from student
testimonials regarding the
course during CI meeting
monthly with campus
learning community
Internal outcomes
Increased faculty who
competently engage
with students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities

Number of student positive
comments and feedback
Data collected from student
testimonials regarding the
course during CI monthly
meetings with campus
learning community

Increased faculty who
engage in practices that
dismantle oppressive
conditions that impact
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.

Increased programming in
support of students from
historically racially
marginalized communities
Data collected from faculty
responses during learning
community semester check-in
with curriculum facilitator
Increase in faculty who
create inclusive and
humanizing spaces for
students from
Increased programming in
support of students from
historically racially
marginalized communities
Data collected from student
testimonials regarding the
course during CI monthly
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Outcome Metrics Methods
historically racially
marginalized
communities
meetings with campus
learning community

Note. CCC = California Community College; CI = counseling instructional.

Level 3: Behavior
Level 3 of Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick’s (2016) model evaluates the degree CCC CI
faculty transfer their use of culturally sustaining and critically conscious skills related to their
ability to critically reflect within their instructional practice and in the training developed by
Ramirez (2021). Cognitive and behavioral learning are central to this curriculum design.
Cognitive learning involves a change in a learner’s knowledge that is attributed to experience
(Mayer, 2011). I designed this curriculum to reinforce conceptual knowledge by providing varied
examples and experiences to help learners understand new knowledge. Behavioral learning
extends the understanding of new knowledge to behavioral change (Schunk, 2020). The
experiential components of this curriculum design facilitate behavioral changes through
interactions and experiences among peers and the training environment. Cognitive and
behavioral learning are not mutually exclusive; rather, they inform one another. Critical
behaviors monitor and evaluate CCC CI faculty’s performance of curriculum outcomes.
Critical Behaviors Required to Perform the Course Outcomes
Monitoring of CCC CI faculty critical behaviors must occur to evaluate if the training
accomplishes its defined outcomes (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016) and to identify gaps in the
training. The critical behaviors measured in this training include CCC CI faculty having the
information and experience needed to critically reflect on their instructional practices, the
62

resources and information needed to develop critically conscious and culturally sustaining
instructional practices, and the awareness of their cognitions and behaviors that could perpetuate
oppressive conditions for students from historically racially marginalized communities. Table 7
shows the critical behaviors evaluated and the metrics and measurement methods used.
63

Table 7
Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
Critical behavior for
course outcomes
Metrics Methods Timing
Behavior 1
CCC CI faculty will
develop inclusive
lesson plans to
engage the needs of
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.

Audit of the number
of lesson plans
checked by the
learning
community, which
includes inclusive
teaching practices

Anecdotal evidence
collected among the
campus-based
learning community
and shared with the
curriculum facilitator
during the campus
check-in twice per
semester

During once-a-
month meetings
among the
campus learning
community and
twice per semester
with the
curriculum
facilitator
Behavior 2
CCC CI faculty will
utilize inclusive and
humanizing
language when
interacting with
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities and
amongst peers.

Number of positive
student comments
and feedback

Anecdotal evidence
collected among the
campus-based
learning community
and shared with the
curriculum facilitator
during the campus
check-in twice per
semester

During once-a-
month meetings
among the
campus learning
community and
twice per semester
with the
curriculum
facilitator
Behavior 3
CCC CI faculty will
be aware of and
limit their
perpetuation of
conditions that
oppress students
from historically
racially
marginalized
communities and
amongst peers.

Informal peer
observations

Anecdotal evidence
collected among the
campus-based
learning community
and shared with the
curriculum facilitator
during the campus
check-in twice per
semester.

During once-a-
month meetings
among the
campus learning
community and
twice per semester
with the
curriculum
facilitator

Note. CCC = California Community College; CI = counseling instructional.

64

Required Drivers
The required drivers are the conditions that motivate instructors to perform the critical
behaviors (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). In this case, the CCC CI faculty’s desire to
accomplish the learning outcomes serves as the driver. Drivers motivate individuals to different
extents, creating a need for a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic conditions that reinforce, monitor,
encourage, and reward performance (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The most prominent
drivers undergirding this training include feedback and acknowledgment delivered throughout
the experiential exercises by training facilitators and peers, modeling of skill sets by the training
facilitator, and practical and tangible resources provided to support learners’ development and
implementation plan. Table 8 illustrates the components of these methods and the critical
behaviors they support.

Table 8
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Methods Timing
Critical behaviors supported
1, 2, 3
Reinforcing
Learners will be provided job
aids presenting strategies
and techniques that support
developing lesson plans that
incorporate the critically
conscious and culturally
sustaining principles.

Throughout the training and
during the monthly learning
community meetings
1, 2, 3
Learners will receive peer
support with regard to
training content, critical
reflection, and educational
tools that are critically
conscious and culturally
sustaining.
Throughout the training and
during the monthly learning
community meetings
1, 2, 3
65

Methods Timing
Critical behaviors supported
1, 2, 3
Encouraging
Learning community will
provide feedback and peer
observations to colleagues
to develop culturally
sustaining and critically
conscious lesson plans and
strategies.
Throughout the training and
during monthly learning
community meetings
2, 3
Rewarding
Learners will receive
facilitator and peer
acknowledgment and
recognition with regard to
participant growth and
performance.

Throughout the training and
during monthly learning
community meetings
1
School administration will
acknowledge CCC CI
faculty for their
commitment to systemic
change efforts on campus.
At the conclusion of the
institute
1
Monitoring
CCC CI faculty will engage
in a peer learning
community to reflect on
teaching practices regarding
the creation of inclusive and
equitable instructional
spaces that meet the needs
of learners from historically
racially marginalized
communities.

Throughout the training and
during monthly learning
community meetings
1, 2, 3
CCC CI faculty will work
alongside the learning
community to monitor each
other’s proper use of
critically conscious and
culturally sustaining
educational tools.

Throughout the training and
during monthly learning
community meetings
1, 2, 3
Through a shared learning
community discussion
Ongoing 2, 3
66

Methods Timing
Critical behaviors supported
1, 2, 3
board, learners connect with
one another to ask for
support and provide
guidance to one another.
Additionally, job aids will
be hosted on this site.

Note. CCC = California Community Colleges; CI = counseling instructional.

Organizational Support
CCC Chancellor Oakley’s (2020) call to action led to a system-wide push to create
equitable and supportive conditions for students from historically racially marginalized
communities. With this push, leaders allocated monies to the development of offices of student
equity at each CCC and for the development of other programming supporting students from
historically racially marginalized communities. On a local level, the college and student services
departments committed themselves to equity and excellence with respect to enhancing outcomes
and student experiences for this population. Thus, buy-in exists from a variety of stakeholders.
Furthermore, CCC CI faculty will serve as peer advocates to support and influence colleagues
working to cultivate inclusive and humanizing learning environments for students from
historically racially marginalized communities.
This curriculum design aligns with CCC Chancellor Oakley’s call to action. To sustain
the professional development and equity efforts promoted by this curriculum design, alumni of
the training will play an instrumental role. By volunteering to undergo this training, participants
exhibit a commitment to equity efforts. After the completion of the 2-day training, the learners
will engage in a monthly learning community. As peers, alumni of the curriculum training will
67

hold one another accountable and support one another in actualizing critically conscious and
culturally sustaining lesson planning and pedagogy. From this point forward, alumni will serve
as models and provide feedback, testimonies, and direction for new training participants. Alumni
will also motivate committed CI faculty to engage in the training and buy into the equity efforts
and the learning community. The curriculum facilitator will meet with each learning community
twice in the semester preceding training to provide further feedback, guidance, and support.
Level 2: Learning
Kirkpatrick’s Level 2 measures the degree to which participants learn the intended
knowledge and skills while demonstrating the desire, confidence, and commitment needed to
actualize change (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). Additionally, Level 2 centers on the learning
objectives rather than the learning outcomes. This focus highlights what the learners will be able
to do after participating in the training.
Terminal Learning Objectives
Learners must be able to complete the learning objectives of the learning experience in
order to actualize the desired critical behaviors. The learning objectives being measured in this
training are as follows:
● Given the student population from historically racially marginalized communities,
faculty will draft positionality statements to show how they have designed lesson
plans, materials, and spaces that meet the needs of students. They will also
demonstrate cultural awareness of their own and others’ cultures, and their lessons
should reveal an understanding of the centrality of culture in informing individuals’
cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.
● Given the responsibility for designing spaces that meet the needs of students from
68

historically racially marginalized communities, faculty will demonstrate a practical
understanding of critically conscious and culturally sustaining instructional practices
by providing a journal reflection on how they can implement these principles in their
lesson plans.
● Given the need to design critically conscious and culturally sustaining lesson plans,
the learners will design lesson plans that align with the rubric based on the CTA job
aid.
Components of Learning Evaluation
The evaluation component in Level 2 of Kirkpatrick’s model supports identifying the
proper type and frequency of assessments and evaluation instruments utilized in the training.
This training will involve group activities, facilitator and peer feedback, role-playing, surveys,
demonstrations, and discussion to evaluate the learners’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, confidence,
and commitment related to the learning objectives. Table 9 shows the activities that support each
component of the learning program and the timing of the activity within the learning
experiences.

Table 9
Evaluation of the Components of Learning for the Program.
Methods or activities Timing
Declarative knowledge: “I know it.”
CCC CI faculty are asked to respond to
questions and prompts.
During the training
CCC CI faculty can recall knowledge while
participating in Ramirez (2021) training.
At the training’s conclusion
69

Methods or activities Timing
Procedural skills: “I can do it right now.”
Demonstration of critical reflection in
discussion and group activities
During the training
Demonstration of utilizing critically
conscious and culturally sustaining
education tools in group activities
During the training
Peer and facilitator feedback during group
activities
During the training
Attitude: “I believe this is worthwhile.”
CCC CI faculty respond to surveys giving
feedback on attitude toward the training.
At the training’s conclusion
Training facilitator and peer observations. During the training
Confidence: “I think I can do it on the job.”
CCC CI faculty demonstrate confidence when
engaging with experiential activities and
other learning experiences.
During the training
CCC CI faculty respond in an evaluative
survey regarding their confidence utilizing
critically conscious and culturally
sustaining tools and engaging in critical
reflection.
During the training
Commitment “I will do it on the job.”
CCC CI faculty can design an implementation
plan.
During the training
CCC CI faculty recall skills while
participating in Ramirez (2021)
curriculum.
At the training’s conclusion

Note. CCC = California Community College; CI = counseling instructional.

70

Level 1: Reaction
Level 1 of the Kirkpatrick model evaluates the extent to which learners find the training
favorable, engaging, and relevant to their jobs (Kirpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The design of
this training requires an evaluation of the extent to which learners find the content of the training
relevant to their instructional and educational practice and anticipate implementing the material
presented. A positive reaction to the training does not directly indicate participants learned the
content or found the course material meaningful to their craft. During the experiential activities
and training discussions, the facilitator will evaluate learners’ engagement. Additionally, at the
conclusion of the training, an anonymous survey will be distributed to evaluate participants’
satisfaction with the training. Table 10 presents the application of the methods and timing of
these Level 1 components.
71

Table 10
Components for Measuring Reactions to the Program
Methods or tools Timing
Engagement
Training facilitator observes learners’
engagement in experiential activities and
group discussions.
During the training
Training facilitator instigates activities that
enable participants to check in regarding
their personal and professional status and
their engagement with the curriculum.
During the training
Relevance
Training facilitators will actively ask CCC CI
faculty if and how curriculum content is
relevant to their practice.
During the training and at the training’s
conclusion
Training facilitator will ask CCC counseling
instruction faculty how the course content
is also relevant to their lived experience
outside of their professional work.
During the training
Customer satisfaction
CCC CI faculty will be asked in formative
and summative assessments if the training
was personally or professionally
meaningful for them.
During the training and at the training’s
conclusion
CCC CI faculty will be asked if the training
was of value in preparation for training
designed by Ramirez (2021).
Midway through training with Ramirez
(2021)

Note. CCC = California Community College; CI = counseling instructional. College toolbox:
Culturally relevant fomenting of life skills for academic success [Unpublished doctoral
dissertation], by O. Ramirez, 2021, University of Southern California.
72

Evaluation Tools
The training design includes opportunities for facilitators to collect data throughout the
learning experience using formative and summative assessments and evaluation tools. The
collection and analysis of this data allow modifications to be made, which will enhance the
learning experience of current and future participants (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The
participant feedback will be utilized to refine the training curriculum and will serve as a tool to
share success to motivate learners (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). Blended evaluations will
be utilized to survey CCC CI faculty at multiple levels of the Kirkpatrick model, which includes
using learner-centered items.
Immediately Following the Program Implementation
CCC counseling instruction faculty will rate the extent to which they were satisfied with
and engaged by the training and the degree to which they found the content relevant. This
evaluation tool will not measure how well the participants accomplished the outcomes. However,
it will provide valuable insight into how they felt about the training. The evaluation centers on
Levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick’s (2016) evaluation model. The following rating questions will
evaluate Levels 1 and 2 (L1 and L2). Participants will be asked to use the following rating scale
to answer the subsequent questions. (1 = none to 5 = very high level). Facilitators will conduct
present these questions before and after the learners complete the training.
1. The training environment is conducive to my learning (L1).
2. The training content is directly applicable to my work as a CCC counseling
instructional faculty member (L1).
3. I will recommend this training for future participants (L1).
4. The training was worthwhile for my professional learning (L2).
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5. I feel confident practicing critical reflection (L2).
6. I am committed to improving my critically conscious and culturally sustaining skillset
(L2).
The survey also includes the following open-ended questions.
1. What additional support can the facilitator provide to further your development and
use of critical reflection, critical consciousness, and a culturally sustaining skillset
(L2)?
2. How do you plan to apply the skills you used during the training in your professional
work (L2)?
3. How is what you learned in this training relevant to your job (L1)?
4. Did anything during your training experience interfere with your learning? If so,
please describe (L1).
Delayed for a Period After the Program Implementation
After the training’s conclusion and the initial evaluation, an evaluation will be conducted
through the training designed by Ramirez (2021), the facilitator will conduct another evaluation.
Questions in this additional survey center on the degree to which participants felt prepared for
the current training material and now feel prepared to implement what they learned in their
instructional and educational practice. The data collected from this survey, along with the data
collected from partner institutional departments and offices, will provide insight into whether the
training accomplished the intended outcomes. The evaluation will measure Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4
of Kirkpatrick’s (2016) model and includes the following questions.
1. How can this training have improved (L1)?
74

2. What training content did you find most relevant to your professional or personal
work (L1)?
3. Please describe what challenges you have experienced with applying the skills you
learned during the training in your work. Can you identify any possible solutions to
overcome them (L3)?
4. What early signs of success have you experienced with regard to the content you
learned in this training (L4)?
5. How has your participation in the training benefited your institution?
Data Analysis and Reporting
To show the impact of the training on the CCC, training data will be presented to
stakeholders. Given that participants will engage in a two-part training that includes the teacher
rendition and the student rendition of the curriculum, it will take approximately 6 months to
produce results. I will provide a comprehensive summary of the evaluations at the end of the
semester after CCC CI faculty have facilitated their courses. The results will provide meaningful
insight that can be distributed to stakeholders to support other campus programming and
departments. The aim is to inform training for future faculty, staff, and administrators on how to
create spaces that meet the needs of students from historically marginalized communities.
Conclusion
I designed this curriculum to address the problem of practice related to the lack of faculty
within the CCC system who are equipped with the experiences and skills needed to humanize the
learning experiences and meet the needs of students from historically racially marginalized
student populations.
With this curriculum design, I aimed to create a tool that could engage CCC CI faculty in
75

an experiential learning experience that would equip them with the critically reflective, critically
conscious, and culturally sustaining skill sets needed to create inclusive classroom environments.
CCC CI faculty are uniquely situated to meet the needs of historically racially marginalized
students because these instructors’ roles are multifaceted. In addition to teaching faculty, they
serve as counselors, where they are more intimately involved with student experiences. I also
designed this curriculum to prepare CCC CI faculty to engage Ramirez’s (2021) student-oriented
curriculum that supports historically racially marginalized students with life skills. Through a
six-unit training, I moved this curriculum beyond theory to help learners develop the practical
and instructional skills needed to better meet the needs of students from historically racially
marginalized communities. This curriculum can be scaled to other institutions and can support
professionals working to strengthen their self-awareness and enhance their ability to support
individuals from communities that have been historically marginalized.
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Appendix A: Lesson Plan and Instructor’s Guide
Unit 1: Engaging in Critical Reflection
Unit Duration: approximately 130 minutes of synchronous engagement

Introduction: This is the first unit in a three-unit training to prepare California Community
College counseling instructional faculty with the knowledge and skills needed to create inclusive
and liberatory spaces for students from historically racially marginalized communities by
engaging them in critical reflection and developing critically conscious and culturally sustaining
skill sets. The purpose of this unit is to prepare faculty to be able to engage in critical reflection
and interrogate the origins of their cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.

Learning Objectives
Terminal objective:
Given the responsibility for designing spaces that meet the needs of students from
historically racially marginalized communities, faculty will be able to display cultural
awareness of their own and others’ cultures while critically reflecting on their
positionality related to the centrality of culture in informing individuals’ cognitions,
emotions, and behaviors.

Enabling Objectives
For a given learning scenario, faculty will be able to:
• Know the meaning of culture
• Know the meaning of cultural awareness
• Know the meaning of historically racially marginalized communities
• Know the meaning of conscious and unconscious cognitions, emotions, and behaviors
• Be able to analyze their own positionality
• Be able to apply the principle of the impact of positionality when designing spaces
that meet the needs of students from historically racially marginalized communities
• Be able to design spaces that meet the needs of students from historically racially
marginalized communities

Learning Activities
• After introductions, attention activities, and presentation of learning objectives, assess
prior knowledge of the meaning of critical reflection, culture, conscious and
unconscious influences on cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.
• Teach any necessary prerequisite knowledge by providing definitions, examples, and
nonexamples.
• Provide opportunities for learners to generate their own examples and nonexamples.
• Model the steps for self-analyzing positionality.
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• Teach why an individual’s positionality is critical when designing spaces that meet
the needs of students from historically racially marginalized communities
• Provide practice and feedback in evaluating how culture influences positionality and
a learner’s ability to engage in critical reflection.
• Provide opportunities to transfer knowledge to self-reflect on positionality and
interrogate cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.

Summative Assessment
Given the student population from historically racially marginalized communities, faculty will
draft positionality statements to display cultural awareness of their own and others’ cultures
while demonstrating in their lessons an understanding of culture’s central role in informing an
individual’s cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.

Lesson Materials
• Access to a computer with internet
• Infographic written resource
• Video, written, and online resources
• Learner-generated journal

Learner-Characteristics Accommodations
This is a synchronous on-ground session. Holding these training sessions in person allows for
authentic relationship development, which is key to the experiential interpersonal learning
activities. Necessary accommodation can be made through the campus’s human resources office.

Facilitator’s Notes
The training is designed to be delivered in an on-ground synchronous format. This environment
is crucial to the reflective learning process. Real-time feedback and interaction is key to the
experiential components of the training.

Table A1 provides the sequence and types of instructional activities, duration of each activity,
descriptions of the learning activities, instructor actions and decisions (supplantive events of
instruction), and learner actions and decisions (generative events of instruction).

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Table A1
Unit 1 Course Instructional Activities
Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Gain
attention
20

Greet learners and
set community
guidelines so that
everyone knows
they are
participating in a
safe environment.

Prompt learners to
reflect on the
following
statement: “Give
examples of what
culture means to
you.”
Greet and welcome
learners.

Create shared community
guidelines.

Ask learners to consider
in what ways culture
shows up in their lives
and in their classrooms.
Instructor provides
examples of culture.

Participate in the
creation of
shared
community
guidelines.

Reflect on the
examples from
peers, relating
them to their own
experiences and
identities.
Present their
reflections.
Learning
objectives
5 The learning
objectives for the
lesson are posted
on a training
infographic and
will be projected
during the lesson.
In order to ground the
lesson in the terminal
objective and enabling
learning objective, ask
learners to read each
objective. Facilitate a
quick group discussion
then ask learners to
share their
understanding with the
group.
Read the terminal
and enabling
learning
objectives for
themselves.
Engage in a
quick share of
what the
objectives mean
and ask
clarifying
questions.
Purpose for
learning
Benefits
5 Present the purpose
for learning and
risks and benefits
Encourage learners to
critically reflect on how
cultural beliefs and
identities they
Reflect on the risks
and benefits
associated with
the content and
84

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Risks
avoided
associated with the
lesson.

Benefits: Reducing
or eliminating
barriers to the
student learning
experience.
Learners identify
their positionality
relative to students
from historically
racially
marginalized
communities.
Learners identify
cultural influences
on their cognitions,
emotions, and
behavior.

Risks avoided:
Perpetuating
conditions on the
learning
experiences of
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.
experience can impact
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities by
generating their own
risks and benefits and
sharing thoughts with
the whole group.
generate their
own risks and
benefits.

Share their own
risks and
benefits.

Overview
Prior
knowledge
New
knowledge
10 Lesson overview that
includes a brief
content outline and
a review of the
critically reflective
Summarize the process
that will be followed in
this lesson.

Share personal
examples of
culture,
historically
marginalized
85

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Learning
strategies

(What you
already
know . . .
what you
are going
to learn . .
. and how
you are
going to
learn it.)
and experiential
approach to the
training.

Review of prior
knowledge of the
enabling
objectives:
Meaning of culture,
cultural awareness,
historically racially
marginalized
communities,
conscious and
unconscious
cognitions,
emotions,
behaviors, and
positionality.

For procedural
knowledge,
learners will
receive a
demonstration and
then practice.
Review prior knowledge
in an open discussion.

Encourage learners to
provide examples of
culture, historically
marginalized
communities,
positionality,
unconscious and
conscious emotions,
behaviors, and
cognitions.

Describe new knowledge
that will be learned and
end with the learning
strategies that will be
followed in the lesson.
communities,
positionality,
unconscious and
conscious
emotions,
behaviors, and
cognitions.

Discuss prior
knowledge of
concepts.

Learners respond
and summarize
shared
information.
Prerequisite
knowledge
15 Provide context for
an experiential
activity that
exemplifies the
lived experience of
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities as
Ask for a volunteer.
Instruct the volunteer to
leave the room until
they are welcomed
back. Inform the rest of
the learners that they
must remain silent until
instructed by the
facilitator to announce
hot or cold to direct the
Volunteer attempts
to find a $5 bill
while enduring
gaze from the
other learners
and hasty
comments from
the facilitator.

86

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
they navigate much
of college.

Prompt learners to be
mindful of their
cognitions,
emotions, and
behaviors
throughout the
experiential
activity.

Identify a volunteer
to search for a $5
bill as the instructor
makes hasty
comments that
mimic social and
cultural remarks
often directed at
students from
historically racially
marginalized
students (i.e., “You
obviously are not
trying hard enough,
and “The task is
not that hard. I do
not understand why
you cannot be
successful and
work harder.”).

Engage learners
using a breathing
exercise and inform
volunteer to the
location of the hidden
$5 bill.

Invite the volunteer back
into the classroom and
provide them with the
instructions for finding
a $5 bill.

After the volunteer
locates the $5 bill,
debrief with the
volunteer and audience
regarding what
cognitions, behaviors,
and emotions came up
for them. Also, explore
learners’ experiences
during the activity and
how they relate to
student experiences.
Make connections to
social, historical, and
cultural messages
directed at students.

Facilitate a breathing
exercise and highlight
its significance.
Bring internal
awareness to
cognitions,
behaviors, and
emotions while
gazing at
volunteer.

After 10 min
elapse, the
learners direct
the volunteer to
the $5 bill
through hot and
cold language.
When close to
the bill,
announce “hot,”
when distant,
announce “cold.”

Share the
cognitions,
emotions, and
behaviors they
experienced
during the
exercise and
what they are
currently
experiencing.

Engage in a
breathing
exercise to
regulate
87

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
them of its
importance in de-
escalating emotions
and thoughts and
grounding them in
the present.
emotions and
slow down
automatic
thoughts.
Prerequisite
knowledge
10 Definition of culture,
cultural awareness,
historically racially
marginalized
communities,
conscious and
unconscious
cognitions,
emotions, and
behavior. Learners
conduct self-checks
of prerequisite
knowledge by
reflecting on the
experiential
activity, identifying
examples and
nonexamples.

Facilitator identifies
gaps in prerequisite
knowledge using
the group
experiential
activity.
Identify gaps in prior
knowledge via group
discussion and address
through the group
experiential learning
activity.

Provide definitions and
examples and
nonexamples

Reflect on how
their culture and
lived histories
shaped their
cognitions,
emotions, and
behaviors during
the $5 bill
activity and
extend to other
happenings in
their lives.

Conduct self-
checks of
prerequisite
knowledge using
group and
facilitator
feedback.

Generate examples
and
nonexamples.
Learning
guidance:
Learning
context
20
Learners reflect on
their lived
experiences and
use the experiential
Facilitator presents
anecdotal, qualitative,
and quantitative data on
campus climate
Critically reflect
and share in the
larger group their
experiences
88

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Lecture
Demo
activity to identify
how culture and
their positionality
influence the
design of
instructional
spaces.

Learners evaluate
and critically
reflect on their role
in creating spaces
that either meet the
needs of or
marginalize
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.

experiences of students
from historically
racially marginalized
communities.

Facilitator encourages
learners to share things
they have experienced
in their life, from the
experiential activity,
and from students with
regard to instructional
spaces they have
experienced, including
where they felt they
belonged and where
they felt marginalized.

Facilitator reviews the
positionality principle.

Facilitator models how
an individual can
analyze their own
positionality.

regarding
instructional
spaces that
support the needs
of students from
historically
racially
marginalized
communities.

Ask questions
about the
positionality
principle.
Practice and
feedback:
The
learning
context
20 Learners work in
groups using the
intersecting axes of
privilege,
domination, and
oppression to
identify how their
culture shapes their
positionality
Break learners into
evenly divided groups
to work on evaluating
each member’s
positionality and craft a
positionality statement
with distributed
resource documents.

Generate
positionality
statements and
reflect on
additional
cultures and
characteristics
they identify
with that are not
89

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
characteristics and
statements.

Learners share in
small groups their
positionality
statements and
their implications
for designing
instructional spaces
that meet the needs
of students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.
Prompt learners to share
the impact culture and
positionality have on
designing spaces for
instruction.

Extend previous prompts
to designing spaces that
meet the needs of
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.
presented in the
tool.

Share how their
positionality
influences the
instructional
spaces they
occupy and their
efforts to meet
the needs of
students from
historically
racially
marginalized
communities.

Authentic
assessment
10

Learners demonstrate
they can identify
how their
positionality shapes
the design of an
instructional space
that meets the
needs of students
from historically
racially
marginalized
communities.

Encourage learners to
identify how their
positionality shapes the
design of an
instructional space that
meets the needs of
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.

Answer student
clarifying questions.

Demonstrate they
can identify how
their positionality
shapes the design
of an
instructional
space that meets
the needs of
students from
historically
racially
marginalized
communities.

Ask questions
about the task.
90

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Retention
and
transfer
5 Learners reflect on
the objectives for
the lesson; share
their emotions,
behaviors, and
cognitions; and
share what they
learned.

Ask learners to think
about how to apply
what they learned to the
development of an
instructional practice.

Review in writing the
objectives listed on the
infographic.
Critically reflect
on the lesson
objectives and
identify
questions.
Identify current
emotions,
behaviors, and
cognitions.
Briefly explore
how to
implement
content in an
instructional
practice.
Big ideas

8 Reiterate the key
takeaways by
asking the
question: How can
we begin to honor
and center the
cultural identities
of our students in
our instruction?
Ask learners to share in
the group discussion
and journal any
questions or challenges
they had during the
process, so the group
facilitator can address
them.
Share in the group
discussion and
journal any
questions or
challenges they
had during the
process.
Advance
organizer
for the
next unit
2 Prepare for the
subsequent lesson
by providing
thought provoking
questions for
learners to explore.

During the break
without using
technology,
learners ponder
Thank learners for their
participation and
normalize their
uncomfortable
emotions and
cognitions.

Review why instructors
should be mindful of
their positionality,
cognitions, behaviors,
Begin to ponder
and explore
thought-
provoking
questions,
emotions, and
behaviors.

Ponder and journal
the thought-
provoking
91

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
what culturally
sustaining and
critically
consciousness
mean to them.
and emotions as they
occupy and create
spaces for instruction.

Prompt learners to think
during break about the
following question:
What does culturally
sustaining and critical
consciousness mean to
you?
question: What
does culturally
sustaining and
critical
consciousness
mean to you?
Total time 130
min

92

Unit 2: Developing a Practical Understanding of Critical Consciousness and Culturally
Sustaining Pedagogy
Unit Duration: approximately 105 minutes of synchronous engagement

Introduction: This is the second unit in a three-unit training to prepare California Community
College counseling instructional faculty with the knowledge and skills needed to create inclusive
and liberatory spaces for students from historically racially marginalized communities by
engaging them in critical reflection and developing critically conscious and culturally sustaining
skill sets. The purpose of this unit is to prepare faculty with a practical understanding of
culturally sustaining and critically conscious instruction.

Learning Objectives
Terminal objective:
Given the responsibility for designing spaces that meet the needs of students from
historically racially marginalized communities, faculty will critically reflect on their
positionality to understand and apply the principles of critically conscious and
culturally sustaining instructional practices.

Enabling Objectives:
For a given learning scenario, faculty will be able to:
• Know the meaning of critical consciousness
• Know the meaning of culturally sustaining practices
• Know the meaning of oppressive practices
• Be able to apply the principle of the impact of positionality when designing spaces
that meet the needs of students from historically racially marginalized communities
• Be able to apply the principle of critical consciousness when designing spaces that
meet the needs of students from historically racially marginalized communities
• Be able to apply the principle of culturally sustaining instructional practices when
designing spaces that meet the needs of students from historically racially
marginalized communities

Learning Activities
• After introductions, attention activities, and presentation of learning objectives, assess
prior knowledge of the meaning of critical consciousness and culturally sustaining
practices.
• Teach any necessary prerequisite knowledge by providing definitions, examples, and
nonexamples.
• Provide opportunities for learners to generate their own examples and nonexamples.
93

• Model the procedure for implementing culturally sustaining and critically conscious
instructional practices.
• Provide practice and feedback in evaluating understanding of critical consciousness
and culturally sustaining instructional practices.
• Provide opportunities to transfer knowledge to instruction and create an environment
that meets the needs of students from historically racially marginalized communities.

Summative Assessment
Given the responsibility for designing spaces that meet the needs of students from historically
racially marginalized communities, faculty will demonstrate a practical understanding of
critically conscious and culturally sustaining instructional practices by providing a journal
reflection on how they can implement these principles in their lesson plans.

Lesson Materials
• Access to a computer with internet
• Infographic written resource
• Video, written, and online resources
• Learner-generated journal
Learner-Characteristics Accommodations
This is a synchronous on-ground session. Holding these training sessions in person allows for
authentic relationship development, which is key to the experiential interpersonal learning
activities. Necessary accommodation can be made through the campus’s human resources office.

Facilitator’s Notes
The training is designed to be delivered in an on-ground synchronous format. This environment
is crucial to the reflective learning process. Real-time feedback and interaction is key to the
experiential components of the training.

Table A2 provides the sequence and types of instructional activities, duration of each activity,
descriptions of the learning activities, instructor actions and decisions (supplantive events of
instruction), and learner actions and decisions (generative events of instruction).

94

Table A2
Unit 2 Instructional Activities
Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Gain
attention
15

Provide real-life
examples of
problems to which
learners can apply
culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
principles.

Prompt learners to
reflect on the
following
question: How do
you create space
for learners to
connect instruction
with their lived
experiences?

Facilitate a
conversation on
how learners can
cocreate learning
community
guidelines to
cultivate a safe
space with their
learners.
Ask learners to consider
how they create
opportunities for
learners to connect
instruction to their
lived experiences.
Provide examples of
culture.

Facilitate a conversation
with learners about
how they can cocreate
learning community
guidelines with their
learners to cultivate a
safe space.

Debrief significance.

Reflect on the
examples from
peers relating
them to their
own
experiences and
identities.

Present their
reflections.

Engage in a
conversation
navigating how
they can create
a safe space
with their
learners.

Debrief its
significance.
Learning
objectives
5 The learning
objectives for the
lesson are posted
To ground the lesson in
the terminal objective
and enabling learning
Read the terminal
and enabling
learning
95

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
on a training
infographic and
will be projected
during the lesson.
objective, ask learners
to read each objective.
Facilitate a quick
group discussion, then
ask learners to share
their understanding
with the group.
objectives for
themselves.
Quickly share
what the
objectives mean
and ask
clarifying
questions.
Purpose for
learning
Benefits
Risks
avoided
3 Present the purpose
for learning and
risks and benefits
associated with the
lesson.

Benefits: Reducing
or eliminating
barriers to the
student learning
experience.
Practice will
increase student
engagement with
material.

Risks avoided:
Further
marginalizing
students from
historically
racially
marginalized
communities.
Encourage learners to
critically reflect on
how affirming
students’ lived
experiences and
identities and generate
their own risks and
benefits and share
thoughts with the
whole group.
Reflect on the
risks and
benefits
associated with
the content and
generate their
own risks and
benefits.

Share their own
risks and
benefits.

Overview
Prior
knowledge
7 Lesson overview
that includes a
brief content
Summarize the process
that will be followed
in this lesson.
Share personal
critical
consciousness,
96

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
New
knowledge
Learning
strategies

(What you
already
know . . .
what you
are going
to learn . . .
and how
you are
going to
learn it.)
outline and
provides an
overview of the
critically reflective
approach to the
training.

Review prior
knowledge of the
enabling
objectives,
including meaning
of critical
consciousness,
culturally
sustaining
practices, and
oppressive
practices.

For procedural
knowledge,
learners will
receive a
demonstration and
then practice via
worked example
lesson plan.

Review prior
knowledge in an open
discussion.

Encourage learners to
provide examples of
critical consciousness,
culturally sustaining
practices, and
oppressive practices.

Describe new
knowledge that will
be learned, and end
with the learning
strategies that will be
followed in the lesson.
culturally
sustaining
practices, and
oppressive
practices.

Discuss prior
knowledge of
concepts.

Learners respond
and summarizes
what they
shared.
Prerequisite
knowledge
5 The elements of
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
practices and
oppressive
conditions are
identified.
Preview the elements of
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining practices
and oppressive
conditions.

Ask clarifying
questions
regarding the
elements of
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
practices and
97

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)

oppressive
conditions.
Learning
guidance:
Learning
context
Lecture
Demo
20 Explain why
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
instructional
practices are
meaningful for
student and
instructor learning.

Learners generate
reasons for how
they can see the
content as
meaningful or not
in their instruction.

Further review
elements of
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
instructional
principles.

Model use of
principles with a
facilitator-
generated example
that engages
learners.
Explain why critically
conscious and
culturally sustaining
instructional practices
are meaningful for
student and instructor
learning, and
encourage learners to
generate reasons.

Review elements of
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining
instructional
principles.

Facilitator models use
of principles to a
facilitator-generated
example that engages
learners.

Begin experiential
learning activity: Hold
a $5 bill in the air and
repeat the question,
“Who wants a $5.00
bill?” until a student
grabs the money.
Briefly ask learners
why they did or did
not grab the money.
Generate reasons
why critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
instructional
practices are
meaningful for
student and
instructor
learning.

Ask clarifying
questions
regarding
presented
content.

Engage in
experiential
learning
activity.

Name examples
and
nonexamples.
98

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Inquire how their
culture and lived
experiences
influenced their
thoughts, cognitions,
and behaviors.

Review examples and
nonexamples of
proper application of
principles.
Practice and
feedback:
The
learning
context
30 Explore concepts of
culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
principles.

Learners identify
situations in which
culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
instructional
principles can be
applied in an
educational
context.

Learners apply
principles to a
situation and
example generated
by the group.
Break students into
groups and have each
group conceptualize
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining principles
in their own words.

Encourage learners to
identify situations in
an educational context
to which culturally
sustaining and
critically conscious
instructional
principles can be
applied.

Encourage and observe
learners’ application
of principles to a
situation and example
generated by the
group.
In groups,
conceptualize in
their own words
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
instructional
principles.

Identify situations
in an
educational
context to
which culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
instructional
principles can
be applied.

Apply principles
to a situation
99

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)

Provide feedback and
challenge the groups’
explanations to
promote deep thought
and reflection upon
learners’
positionalities.
and example
generated by
the group.

Ask clarifying
questions.
Authentic
assessment
10

Learners recognize
and demonstrate
situations to which
the culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
principles apply.
Encourage learners to
reflect and
demonstrate situations
in which culturally
sustaining and
critically conscious
principles apply.
Encourage learners to
ask questions.
Reflect and
demonstrate
individually,
then share in
group situations
in which
culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
principles
apply.
Retention
and
transfer
3 Learners reflect on
the lesson
objective and
identify and share
ways they believe
they can utilize the
lesson material.

Ask learners to reflect
on how to apply what
they have learned.
Encourage learners to
think about an
existing lesson to
which they can apply
the lesson principles.

Reflect on the
lesson
objectives and
share what parts
of the content
are meaningful
for their
practice.

Begin to reflect
on how to
implement the
principles into
their lessons.
100

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Big ideas

3 Discuss the key
takeaways. Ask
the following:
What are some
meaningful
components of
culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
pedagogy?
Ask learners to reflect
and generate one
meaningful idea they
learned from the
lesson.
Reflect and share
with the group a
meaningful idea
they learned
from the lesson.
Advance
organizer
for the next
unit
4 Prepare for the
subsequent lesson
by providing
thought-provoking
questions for
learners to explore.

Ask the learners:
Can you identify a
lesson you teach to
which you can
apply culturally
sustaining and
critically
conscious
pedagogies?
Thank learners for their
participation and
honor their successful
completion of the
lesson. Briefly
reemphasize the
meaningfulness of
culturally sustaining
and critically
conscious pedagogies.
Begin to ponder
and explore
thought-
provoking
questions.
Total time 95 min

101

Unit 3: Creating Culturally Sustaining and Critically Conscious Instruction and
Instructional Environments
Unit Duration: approximately 130 minutes of synchronous engagement

Introduction: This is the third unit in a three-unit course to prepare California Community
College counseling instructional faculty with the knowledge and skills needed to create inclusive
and liberatory spaces for students from historically racially marginalized communities by
engaging them in critical reflection and developing critically conscious and culturally sustaining
skill sets. The purpose of this unit is to prepare faculty to be able to develop culturally sustaining
and critically conscious instructional lessons and practices.

Learning Objectives
Terminal objective:
Given the responsibility for designing spaces that meet the needs of students from
historically racially marginalized communities, faculty will follow the procedures for
including culturally sustaining and critically conscious principles in a lesson design.

Enabling Objectives
For a given learning scenario, faculty will be able to:
• Know the meaning of critically conscious instructional practices
• Know the meaning of culturally sustaining instructional practices
• Be able to apply the culturally sustaining instructional principle to the development of
instructional lessons
• Be able to apply the critically conscious instructional principle to the development of
instructional lessons

Learning Activities
• After introductions, attention activities, and presentation of learning objectives, assess
prior knowledge of the meaning of critically conscious and culturally sustaining
instructional practices.
• Teach any necessary prerequisite knowledge by providing definitions, examples, and
nonexamples.
• Provide opportunities for learners to generate their own examples and nonexamples.
• Model procedure for identifying the instructional needs of students from historically
racially marginalized communities.
• Model the procedures for using the principles of culturally sustaining and critically
conscious instructional practices to create a lesson.
• Provide practice and feedback in evaluating the implementation of culturally
sustaining and critically conscious instructional practices.
102

• Provide opportunities to transfer knowledge to instructional practices.
Summative Assessment
Given the need to design critically conscious and culturally sustaining lesson plans, the learners
will design lesson plans that meet the rubric based on the cognitive task analysis job aid.

Lesson Materials
• Access to computer with internet
• Slide deck
• Job aid of a lesson design based on cognitive task analysis
• Model lesson plan
• Template for lesson plan and instructor’s guide
• Rubric based on the cognitive task analysis job aid

Learner-Characteristics Accommodations
This is a synchronous on-ground session. Holding these training sessions in person allows for
authentic relationship development, which is key to the experiential interpersonal learning
activities. Necessary accommodation can be made through the campus’s human resources office.

Facilitator’s Notes
The training is designed to be delivered in an on-ground synchronous format. This environment
is crucial to the reflective learning process. Real-time feedback and interaction is key to the
experiential components of the training.

Table A3 provides the sequence and types of instructional activities, duration of each activity,
descriptions of the learning activities, instructor actions and decisions (supplantive events of
instruction), and learner actions and decisions (generative events of instruction).

Table A3
Unit 3 Instructional Activities
Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Gain
attention
15

Lead learning
through a call-and-
response and facial
stretching
grounding
Facilitate grounding
mindfulness exercise.
Explain its
significance.

Participate in a
grounding
mindfulness
exercise. Ask
103

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
technique.
Highlight the
significance of
aligning mind,
body, and spirit.

Ask learners to
consider a time
when they felt their
identity was
celebrated in class
and ask them to
describe that
experience. If they
do not have an
example, ask what
comes to mind.
Encourage learners to
identify a time when
they felt their identity
was celebrated in
class.

Ask a learner to share
their experience.
clarifying
questions.

Explore a time
when they felt
their identity
was celebrated
in class.

Share with the
group.
Learning
objectives
5 Review the learning
objectives for this
lesson and
discussed with the
group.

Ask learners to
glance over job aid.
Encourage learners to
review and discuss
learning objectives.

Review and
discuss learning
objectives.

Look over job
aids.
Purpose for
learning
Benefits
Risks avoided
3 Present the purpose
for learning and
risks and benefits
associated with the
lesson.

Benefits: Reducing
or eliminating
barriers to the
student learning
Encourage learners to
critically reflect on
how through affirming
students’ lived
experiences and
identities and generate
their own risks and
benefits and share
thoughts with the
whole group.
Reflect on the
risks and
benefits
associated with
the content and
generate their
own risks and
benefits.

104

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
experience.
Practice will
increase student
engagement with
material.

Risks avoided:
Further
marginalizing
students from
historically racially
marginalized
communities.
Share their own
risks and
benefits.

Overview
Prior
knowledge
New
knowledge
Learning
strategies

(What you
already
know . . .
what you
are going to
learn . . .
and how
you are
going to
learn it.)
7 Lesson overview that
includes a brief
content outline and
provides an
overview to the
critically reflective
approach to the
training.

Review prior
knowledge of the
enabling
objectives,
including meaning
of critical
consciousness and
culturally
sustaining
instructional
practices.

For procedural
knowledge,
Summarize the process
that will be followed
in this lesson.

Review prior knowledge
in an open discussion.

Encourage learners to
provide examples of
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining
instructional practices.

Describe new
knowledge that will be
learned, and end with
the learning strategies
that will be followed
in the lesson.
Share personal
critical
consciousness
and culturally
sustaining
instructional
practices.

Discuss prior
knowledge of
concepts.

Learners respond
and summarize
what they
shared.
105

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
learners will
receive a
demonstration and
then practice.

Prerequisite
knowledge
5 Review the rubric
that presents
elements of
creating a critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining lesson.

Learners share their
comfort and
hesitation with the
rubric content.
Present and review the
rubric that outlines
elements of creating a
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining lesson.

Address learners’
hesitations and
comfort with the
rubric content.
Share their
understanding,
comfort, and
hesitation with
the rubric
content.
Learning
guidance:
Learning
context
Lecture
Demo
30 Review the
procedure for
implementing
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining
principles in a
lesson.
Review the procedure
for implementing
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining principles
in a lesson using the
results of the cognitive
task analysis in which
the steps are presented
on the cognitive task
analysis job aid.

Present what a lesson
would look like.

Refer to a
resource
document that
reviews the
procedure for
implementing
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
principles in a
lesson.

Ask clarifying
questions and
reflect on how
106

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Answer clarifying
questions.
they will
implement
learned
principles in a
lesson.
Practice and
feedback:
The
learning
context
35 Learners work in
groups to craft,
revise, and engage
in an iterative
process to
implement
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining
principles in a
lesson.

Prompt learners to work
in groups to revise or
craft a lesson
identified in Unit 2 to
implement critically
conscious and
culturally sustaining
principles.

Offer support to learners
as they craft a lesson
and clarify the
procedure.

Break learners into
groups and ask them
to provide feedback to
one another utilizing
the rubric and list of
procedures.

Facilitate as the group
assesses a volunteer
lesson and have the
group compare and
contrast it with the
procedures and rubric
for crafting a lesson
that implements
critically conscious
Using the job aid
based on the
cognitive task
analysis, work in
groups to select
a lesson
identified in
Unit 2 to revise
or craft while
implementing
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
principles.

Break into small
groups and
present to
groupmates who
will provide
questions and
review the
lesson with
respect to the
rubric and
procedures.

Journal for 10 min
on their
107

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
and culturally
sustaining principles.
experiences
crafting a lesson
that implements
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
principles.

Authentic
assessment
20

Learners individually
demonstrate they
can apply
culturally
sustaining and
critically conscious
principles to a
lesson plan.
Provide thought-
provoking questions
for learners to think
critically about their
and their students’
positionality,
supportive and
oppressive conditions
present, and the
presence of
opportunities for
students’ lived
experiences and
cultural identities to be
sustained.

Provide feedback and
positive reinforcement
to learners using the
cognitive task analysis
job aid as a checklist.
Using the
cognitive task
analysis job aid,
individually
craft a lesson
grounded in
critically
conscious and
culturally
sustaining
principles.

Ask clarifying
questions.
Retention and
transfer
3 Learners reflect on
the learning and
enabling objectives
and share what
Ask learners what they
learned about applying
critically conscious,
culturally sustaining
Reflect on the
lesson’s learning
and enabling
objectives and
108

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
they learned,
asking any
questions they may
have.
principles to their
practice and what they
learned through
critical reflection of
their instructional
practice.

Present learning and
enabling objectives for
learners to consider.

Share resources and
encourage learners to
continue to develop
their ability to
implement critically
reflective, culturally
sustaining, and
critically conscious
practices.
share what they
learned from the
lesson and from
the training as a
whole.

Begin to think
how they can
implement these
principles in
their future
practice.
Big ideas

3 Discuss the key
takeaways and ask
the learners to
answer this
question: What is
my plan for
implementing
critical reflection,
critical
consciousness, and
culturally
sustaining
principles in my
lesson plans?
Prompt learners to work
as a group to generate
a big idea that
emerged from the
application of
critically conscious
and culturally
sustaining principles.
Share a big idea
that emerged
from their
participation in
the lesson.
109

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor
action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Advance
organizer
for the next
unit
4 Congratulate and
thank learners for
participating in the
course. Inform
learners of
additional support.
Thank learners for
participating in the
course. Congratulate
them as they transition
to putting the skills
and content they
learned into practice.
Begin to put the
skills and
content they
learned into
practice.
Total time 130
min

110

Appendix B: Slide Deck
111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

Appendix C: Job Aid for Implementing Critically Conscious and Culturally Sustaining
Instructional Practices

124

Appendix D: Model Lesson Plan for Unit 3

Creating Culturally Sustaining and Critically Conscious Instruction and Instructional
Environments
The following is a worked example to be used by the learners (i.e., faculty participating in the
training) to demonstrate the correct way to create a lesson plan and instructor’s guide.

Worked Example Lesson Plan and Instructor’s Guide
Mental Health: Coping Mechanisms
Unit Duration: approximately 95 minutes of synchronous engagement

Introduction
This is one unit of a 10-unit course preparing students from historically marginalized
communities with the knowledge and skills needed to engage in critical reflection and develop
critically conscious and culturally sustaining skill sets that will equip them with the life skills
needed for self-liberation. The purpose of this unit is to prepare students to engage in critical
reflection and interrogate the origins of the healthy and unhealthy ways they cope.

Learning Objectives
Terminal objective:
Given the responsibility for self-liberation, students will be able to display awareness
of their own healthy and unhealthy ways of coping while critically reflecting on how
their cognitions, emotions, and behaviors influence this happening.

Enabling Objectives
For a given learning scenario, faculty will be able to:
• Know the meaning of critical reflection
• Know the meaning of critical consciousness
• Know the meaning of culturally sustaining skill sets
• Know the meaning of self-liberation
• Know the meaning of environmental factors
• Know the meaning of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors
• Be able to analyze the ways they cope
• Be able to apply the principle of healthy and unhealthy coping
• Be able to reflect on what influences the ways they cope

Learning Activities
125

• After introductions, attention activities, and presentation of learning objectives, assess
prior knowledge of the meaning of critical reflection, critical consciousness,
cognitions, emotions, behaviors., culturally sustaining skill sets, and self-liberation
• Teach any necessary prerequisite knowledge by providing definitions, examples, and
nonexamples.
• Provide opportunities for learners to generate their own examples and nonexamples.
• Model the steps for self-analyzing healthy and unhealthy ways of coping.
• Teach why identifying the origins of coping mechanisms is critical to individual
wellbeing and liberation
• Provide practice and feedback in self-evaluating the influences on coping
mechanisms
• Provide opportunities to transfer knowledge to reflect on ways of coping and
interrogate the origins of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.

Summative Assessment
Given the responsibility for self-liberation, students will display awareness of their healthy and
unhealthy ways of coping while demonstrating an understanding of the origins of their
cognitions, emotions, and behaviors to this happening.

Lesson Materials
• Access to a computer with internet
• Infographic written resource
• Video, written, and online resources
• Learner-generated journal

Learner-Characteristics Accommodations
This is a synchronous on-ground session. Holding these training sessions in person allows for
authentic relationship development, which is key to the experiential interpersonal learning
activities. Necessary accommodation can be made through the campus’s student accessibility
services department.

Facilitator’s Notes
The training is designed to be delivered in an on-ground synchronous format. This environment
is crucial to the reflective learning process. Real-time feedback and interaction is key to the
experiential components of the training.

Table D1 provides the sequence and types of instructional activities, duration of each activity,
descriptions of the learning activities, instructor actions and decisions (supplantive events of
instruction), and learner actions and decisions (generative events of instruction).

126

Table D1
Unit 3 Instructional Activities
Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Gain
attention
10

Provide real-life
examples of coping
mechanisms. Brief
students on the
biography of
Pulitzer-Prize-
winning musical
artist Kendrick
Lamar and the
significance of his
prize and work and
the cultural
tensions of his
origins and the
dominant culture.
Play Kendrick
Lamar’s music
video Swimming
Pools.
Prompt learners to
reflect on the ways
that Kendrick
copes by asking
this question: What
are the coping
mechanisms that
Kendrick Lamar
expresses and do
you identify with
any of them?
Greet and welcome
learners.

Ask learners to consider
how they cope and ask
them to take notes
during the video to
work through questions
with the class
community. Provide
examples of coping
mechanisms.

Emphasize the
importance of
confidentiality, being
mindful of how they
feel, and taking care of
themselves during the
conversation.

Reflect on ways of
coping.

Present reflections.
Learning
objectives
5 The learning
objectives for the
To ground the lesson in
the terminal objective
Read the terminal
and enabling
127

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
lesson are posted in
the syllabus and in
the slide deck.
and enabling learning
objective, ask learners
to read each objective.
Instruct learners to jot
down notes of what the
objectives mean to
them and have them
briefly share with the
group.
learning
objectives.
Engage in a
quick share of
what the
objectives mean
and ask
clarifying
questions.
Purpose for
learning
Benefits
Risks
avoided
5 Present the purpose
for learning and
risks and benefits
associated with the
lesson.

Benefits: Reducing
unhealthy
cognitions,
behaviors, and
emotions.
Identifying an
action plan for
healing. Providing
mental health
relief.

Risks avoided:
Exacerbating
mental health.
Encourage learners to
critically reflect on how
the environment they
experience impacts
their well-being.

Ask learners to generate
their own risks and
benefits and share
thoughts with the
whole group.
Reflect on the risks
and benefits
associated with
the content and
generate
personalized
risks and
benefits.

Share personalized
risks and
benefits.

Overview
Prior
knowledge
New
knowledge
10 Conduct lesson
overview that
includes a brief
content outline and
review the
critically reflective
Summarize the process
that will be followed in
this lesson.

Review prior knowledge
in an open discussion.
Share personal
examples of
environmental
factors and
healthy and
128

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Learning
strategies

(What you
already
know . . .
what you
are going
to learn . .
. and how
you are
going to
learn it.)
and experiential
approach to the
training.

Review prior
knowledge of the
enabling
objectives:
environmental
factors, culturally
sustaining skill
sets, self-liberation
cognitions,
emotions,
behaviors, and
coping
mechanisms.

For procedural
knowledge,
students will
receive a
demonstration and
then practice.

Encourage learners to
provide examples of
environmental factors
and healthy and
unhealthy ways of
coping.

Describe new knowledge
that will be learned and
end with the learning
strategies that will be
followed in the lesson.
unhealthy ways
of coping.

Discuss prior
knowledge of
concepts.

Learners respond
and summarizes
what was shared.
Prerequisite
knowledge
10 Definition of
environmental
factors, culturally
sustaining skill
sets, self-liberation
cognitions,
emotions,
behaviors, and
coping
mechanisms.

Identify gaps in prior
knowledge via group
discussion and them
address in a group.

Provide definitions and
encourage learners to
generate examples and
nonexamples

Reflect on how
environmental
factors and lived
experiences have
shaped
cognitions,
emotions, and
behaviors and
have influenced
coping
mechanisms.
129

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Learners conduct
self-checks of
prerequisite
knowledge by
reflecting on lived
experiences and
identifying
examples and
nonexamples.

Facilitator identifies
gaps in
prerequisite
knowledge using
the group
experiential
activity.

Conduct self-
checks of
prerequisite
knowledge using
group and
facilitator
feedback.

Generate examples
and
nonexamples.
Learning
guidance:
Learning
context
Lecture
Demo
10 Learners reflect on
their lived
experiences and
identify cultural
and social
influences on their
ways of coping
Present the spectrum of
healthy and unhealthy
ways of coping and
share how the
environment can
influence an
individual’s cognitions,
behaviors, and
emotions.

Share experiences with
the previously
mentioned task.

Encourage learners to
share things they have
experienced in their
lives.
Critically reflect
and share in the
larger group
experiences
related to healthy
and unhealthy
ways of coping.

Ask questions
about the coping
principle.

Identify the
influence of the
environment on
ways of coping.
130

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)

Model how to self-
analyze origins and
influences of coping
strategies.
Practice and
feedback:
The
learning
context
20 Learners work in
groups to identify
what coping
mechanisms look
like in their lives
and the influences
upon them.

Learners share their
experiences in
small groups, and
group members
validate their
experiences and
support with
identifying origins
of influences and
environmental
factors
Break learners into
evenly divided groups
to work on identifying
what coping
mechanisms look like
in their lives and the
influences upon them.

Prompt learners to share
the impact of the
environment on their
coping mechanisms.

Identify what
personal coping
mechanisms look
like and the
influences on
them.

Share how the
environment
impacts coping
mechanisms.

Authentic
assessment
10

Learners demonstrate
they can identify
influences of the
coping
mechanisms,
demonstrate
healthier ways of
coping, and
develop an action
plan toward
healing.
Encourage learners to
identify their coping
mechanisms and
develop an action plan
toward healing while
demonstrating healthier
ways to cope.

Answer students’
clarifying questions.

Demonstrate the
ability to identify
the origins of
personal coping
mechanisms and
develop an action
plan toward
healing.

Ask questions
about the task.
131

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)

Retention
and
transfer
5 Learners reflect on
the objectives for
the lesson; share
their current
emotions,
behaviors, and
cognitions; and
share what they
learned.

Ask learners to think
about how to apply
what they learned to
develop healthier ways
of coping.

Review in writing the
objectives listed on the
slide deck.
Critically reflect
on the objectives
for the lesson and
identify
questions.
Identify current
emotions,
behaviors, and
cognitions.
Big ideas

8 Reiterate the key
takeaways by
asking the
following question:
How can we begin
to identify our
coping mechanisms
and understand the
origins of those
cognitions,
emotions, and
behaviors for those
happenings while
developing
healthier ways of
coping?
Ask learners to share in
the group discussion
and journal any
questions or challenges
they had during the
process, so the group
facilitator can address
them.
Share in the group
discussion and
journal any
questions or
challenges that
arose during the
process.
Advance
organizer
for the
next unit
2 Prepare for the
subsequent lesson
by providing
thought-provoking
questions for
learners to explore.
Thank learners for their
participation and
normalize their
uncomfortable
emotions and
cognitions.

Begin to ponder
and explore
thought-
provoking
questions,
emotions, and
behaviors.
132

Instructional
sequence
Time
(min)
Description of the
learning activity
Instructor action/decision
(supplantive)
Learner action/
decision
(generative)
Review why it is
important to be mindful
of coping mechanisms
and the influences of
cognitions, behaviors,
and emotions.
Total time 95 min

133

Appendix E: Rubric Based on the CTA Job Aid

CTA step Exemplary Present Developing Absent
1. Self-reflection Reflects on how
their
positionality
impacts the
content and
checks power
and privilege
while creating
opportunities
for learners’
lived
experiences to
be at the
forefront of the
lesson
Minimally
acknowledges
how the
facilitator's
identity
informs lesson
design AND
minimally
creates
opportunities
to center
learners’ lived
experiences
Minimally
acknowledges
how the
facilitator’s
identity
informs lesson
design OR
minimally
creates
opportunities
to center
learners’ lived
experiences
No evidence of
attempts to
acknowledge
how
positionality
informs lesson
design
2. Understand
students’ lived
experiences
and the
conditions they
face to make
relevant
content
Makes all
content
relevant and
personal for
students

Makes most
content
relevant and
personal for
students

Relates content
to some
common
experiences or
recent events

No evidence of
attempts to
connect
content to
student
experiences or
events

3. Social–
emotional
learning
Creates
opportunities
for learners to
engage with
their social–
emotional self
in the content
Connects
theoretically
how social–
emotional
learning can be
evoked by the
content
Content distantly
acknowledges
presence of
social–
emotional
capacities
Lesson does not
acknowledge
or evoke
learners’
social–
emotional
capacity
4. Make fluid
student–
teacher role
Students actively
coconstruct
course policies
with instructors
during each
iteration
Explicitly stated
willingness to
change policies
in response to
student needs
or concerns
Policies are
modified over
time based on
feedback from
students on the
course
Policies are
exclusively
owned and
shaped by
instructional
team without
student input
5. Engage Lesson provides Lesson cultivates Lesson engages No evidence of
134

CTA step Exemplary Present Developing Absent
students’
double
consciousness
and honor their
multiple
identities
learning
opportunities
for students to
be made aware
of double
consciousness
and honors
students’ lived
experiences
while
providing life
skills to
navigate local
contexts
learning
opportunities
for students to
be made aware
of double
consciousness
and honors
students’ lived
experiences
students’
identities
attempts to
acknowledge
students’
identities or
lived
experiences
6. Tools to a
socially just
life
Lesson creates
learning
opportunities
for learners to
be engaged in a
learning
experience that
equips them
with tools to
navigate life in
a socially just
way
Lesson creates
minimal
learning
opportunities
for learners to
be engaged in a
learning
experience that
equips them
with tools to
navigate life in
a socially just
way
Lesson informs
students of
tools that can
be adopted for
social justice
but does not
facilitate a
learning
experience that
engages
students in the
development of
those tools
No evidence of
attempts to
support
students in
creating tools
to navigate life
in a socially
just way

Note. CTA = cognitive task analysis (Stanford University, 2021).

Abstract (if available)

Abstract There exists a lack of counseling faculty who are culturally sustaining, trained in critically conscious pedagogies, and equipped with the tools and experiences to adequately serve and humanize the learning experiences of students from historically racially marginalized communities. The shortfall has produced prevalent race-based equity gaps throughout California Community Colleges (CCCs; Miranda, 2021). Race-based equity gaps exist within course success rates, retention rates, and transfer-level math and English completion rates. The purpose of this curriculum design was to engage community college counseling instructional faculty in a learning experience that would equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to adopt culturally sustaining pedagogies and critically conscious educational tools. Critical consciousness and culturally sustaining pedagogies are central theoretical frameworks that informed this curriculum design. The ultimate goal was for counseling instructional faculty to display cultural self-awareness and awareness of others’ cultures while demonstrating an understanding of how culture informs individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (Douglas & Nganga, 2013). The summative assessment includes a collection of reflective and experiential exercises. A complete implementation plan for the curriculum is provided with an evaluation plan designed to measure the achievement of curriculum goals and outcomes. Currently, CCCs can either perpetuate the oppressive and inequitable practices and conditions experienced by students from historically racially marginalized communities since the inception of the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 or CCCs can become representative and inclusive of CCC students’ full selves.

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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Asset Metadata

Creator Berrien, Markus Lynn (author)

Core Title Preparing critically conscious counseling instructional faculty in the California community college

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Educational Leadership

Degree Conferral Date 2022-08

Publication Date 07/28/2022

Defense Date 06/13/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag counseling instructional faculty,critical consciousness,culturally sustaining,liberation,OAI-PMH Harvest,oppressive conditions

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Yates, Kenneth (committee chair), Chung, Luz (committee member), Hirabayashi, Kimberly (committee member)

Creator Email markuslynnberrien@gmail.com,mberrien@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111375151

Unique identifier UC111375151

Legacy Identifier etd-BerrienMar-11030

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Berrien, Markus Lynn

Type texts

Source 20220728-usctheses-batch-962 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu