Giving Voice: Utilizing Critical Race Theory to Facilitate Consciousness of Racial Identity for Latina/o College Students

Abstract

The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the development and implementation of the Latina/o Educational Equity Project (LEEP), a pilot program designed to facilitate critical consciousness of race in higher education for Latina/o college students. Consistent with our values in social justice, we developed LEEP with the belief that increased critical consciousness would result in students’ recognition of the power dynamics at work in predominately White universities (PWI), increased strength and resilience in being able to negotiate such a context, and improved ability to make the connection between college completion to the upward mobility of their local communities and communities of origin. Elsewhere we present the specific outcomes of this brief intervention (Cerezo & McWhirter; 2012) our focus here is to describe how we used Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guiding framework to develop various aspects of the program that we implemented in three PWI settings.