With and Within the World

This chapter starts by briefly outlining the philosophy of dialectical materialism as an explanatory framework for understanding the process of learning and developing consciousness. It then traces a lineage of consciousness through the work of Vygotsky and points to the ways that our consciousness and thinking is social in nature and leads us to an understanding of how we might conceive of critical consciousness. The author then argues for a conception of consciousness that takes into account theories of relative autonomy and the social construction of consciousness in order to attend to the relationship between conscious transformation of individuals and transformation of society. This chapter concludes with some implications that a dialectical conception of consciousness has for curriculum studies.