Transitioning Into Critical Consciousness: Providing Equity During Pre-Employment Transition Services

By Amber B. Ruiz and LaRon A. Scott

COVID-19 and social justice movements have shed further light on systemic and structural racism within the U.S. education system. Racist policies and practices in U.S. education systems have historically disenfranchised students of color, particularly students of color with disabilities. For students of color with disabilities, particularly in the transition to adulthood stage, postsecondary educational opportunities, competitive employment, and effective community integration are further threatened due to persistent challenges in systems that continue to fail these students. To eradicate barriers for these students, systems must be held accountable for failures that happen, and this includes the individuals that make up these systems. In this case, we focus on transition professionals who are responsible for supporting students and families during transition.

In the article, we discuss the need for transition professionals to develop critical consciousness as a construct within a culturally responsive framework. Critical consciousness has three components (critical motivation, critical reflection, and critical action) and serves to promote critical understanding and take action. We provided guiding questions and scenarios of using critical consciousness during Pre-Employment Transition Service (Pre-ETS) that holds transition stakeholders accountable to appropriately support students of color with disabilities and their families. Here are three key takeaways:

1. Relationships are key to supporting students of color and families and require the knowledge and belief of inequities.

Collaboration can be an important aspect when building critical consciousness. Professionals have to be held accountable for their actions and our actions towards others require reflection. However, sometimes holding people accountable for their actions can seem confrontational when there is not a relationship between the different people involved. Good relationships are founded on principles of trust and communication. For professional teams, trust and communication are valuable for providing feedback, understanding privilege, and bias. For students of color with disabilities and their families--relationships are important in fostering deeper insight into the lives of the individuals being supported and their engagement.

2. Working within systems we have to continually build our critical consciousness to be able to critique systems and recognize signs of oppressive behaviors.

Students of color with disabilities are not protected from racism and ableism. Critical reflection of barriers that students of color with disabilities face is about changing our thought processes on how to support these students and families. Essentially, critical reflection also means coming to terms with issues of colorblindness and thinking about ways to change ourselves and our workplaces.

3. Critical action is about putting in the work.

The work of transition professionals is to remove barriers after we learn about them and reflect on them. For some professionals, this may be leveraging privilege to support students, which can include but is not limited to investing in the students’ community through different acts of service or providing extra resources and informed choices. For other professionals, this could be advocating alongside students to reduce their barriers.

These three takeaways are contributed to the intersection of special education and culturally responsive/relevant work that Drs. Gloria Ladson-Billings and Gevena Gay have imparted to the field of education as a whole. The field of special education has been at the forefront of inclusive education, but often missed the mark on equitable education practices for students of color with disabilities. As the field continues to grow and change based on policies, it is essential that critical consciousness is considered throughout the various special education practices.

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Article details

Guiding Questions for a Culturally Responsive Framework During Preemployment Transition Services

Amber B. Ruiz and LaRon A. Scott

First Published January 18, 2021 Research Article

DOI 10.1177/0040059920982312

Teaching Exceptional Children

About the authors

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Amber Brown Ruiz is a doctoral candidate in the Special Education and Disability Policy Program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She has a growing scholarship agenda aimed at improving post-secondary transition outcomes for students of color with disabilities through collaborative and culturally responsive transition service delivery models. Her research is derived from her practitioner experience as a former vocational rehabilitation counselor. Amber is currently a Research to Policy grant recipient, on the editorial board of Inclusion, and a VCU Holmes Scholar.

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Dr. LaRon Scott is an associate professor of special education, as well as the Executive Director of the Minority Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Equity Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research focuses on the intersections of race and gender in attracting, preparing, and retaining special education teachers--particularly those from underrepresented groups. His research also focuses on postsecondary transition experiences for youth of color with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). He is the co-editor of Inclusion, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on evidence-based interventions and strategies that promote the full inclusion of people with IDD.