| This dissertation studies the generic construct of critical consciousness, defined as the kind of awareness characterized by the independent and interdependent investigation of truth and meaning, both internally and in one's social environment, which allows an individual to disembed from it, engage in a critical moral dialogue with it, and become a moral and caring agent for positive change in his/her social world.;The study subjects the broad phenomenon of CC to a rigorous empirical and developmental exegesis through descriptive accounts of the levels of its evolution in the life-span of interview subjects and secondary life histories from different cultural and historic contexts. It brings together Neo-Piagetian and Vygotskian understanding into an integrated model of the ontogeny of CC as an alterative, optimal developmental pathway of the evolving of adult social consciousness on the boundary of public and private.;This study has established three levels in the CC pathway: Pre-CC, Conventional CC, and Postconventional CC. Each level is described in terms of a different range of tasks, concerns, and capabilities in their cross-cultural and socio-contextual variation.;Converging theoretical and empirical evidence supports the empirical claim that the centrality of authentic moral concerns in the formation of consciousness is independent of the level of operant structural development, although the moral motivational dimensions are continuously elaborated throughout development. Hence, the ontogeny of CC is described as the synergistic outcome of the on-going interplay between moral motivation and the composite structural development of consciousness.;The composite structural developmental component includes social-cognitive and ego development. Moral motivation is analyzed in terms of the interaction of four dimensions in the formation of personhood. They are: (1) the formation of a moral sense of identity and moral imperative; (2) the negotiation of external moral authority progressively internalized as moral responsibility and agency; (3) the formation of empathic and permeable relationships, and concerns with justice and not hurting, which grow into social consciousness; (4) the search for greater meaning in life than the individual self, which serves as a vantage point for self-reflection and critical examination of reality. |
