Word.ws English Dictionary

dysconsciousness

dysconsciousness noun: a state of impaired or distorted consciousness or awareness, especially in regards to social issues.

Noun

dysconsciousness (uncountable)

  1. A state of impaired or distorted consciousness or awareness, especially in regards to social issues.
    • Dysconsciousness is an uncritical habit of mind (including perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs) that justifies inequity and exploitation by accepting the existing order of things as given. If, as Heaney (1984) suggests, critical consciousness "involves an ethical judgement [sic]" about...1991 Spring, Joyce E[laine] King, “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers”, in Journal of Negro Education, volume 60, number 2, Washington, D.C.: Howard University...
    • Subscribing to lifelong learning policies does not mean that we also have to subscribe to the language of racism that flows beneath its surface. If there are possibilities for rupturing the fault lines of "dysconsciousness," there are also possibilities for reinscribing racialized discourses and...2005, Michael W. Apple, Jane Kenway, Michael Singh, editors, Globalizing Education: Policies, Pedagogies, & Politics, New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 75

Examples of dysconsciousness in a sentence

  • If, as Heaney (1984) suggests, critical consciousness "involves an ethical judgement [sic]" about the social order, dysconsciousness accepts it uncritically.1991 Spring, Joyce E[laine] King, “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers”, in Journal of Negro...
  • If there are possibilities for rupturing the fault lines of "dysconsciousness," there are also possibilities for reinscribing racialized discourses and practices.2005, Michael W. Apple, Jane Kenway, Michael Singh, editors, Globalizing Education: Policies, Pedagogies, & Politics, New York, N.Y.: Peter...
  • I have shared liberatory practices that have helped to move students preparing for leadership positions in education towards disrupting their own dysconsciousness about issues of race.2021, Shannon R. Waite, “Disrupting Dysconsciousness: Confronting Anti-Blackness in Educational Leadership Preparation Programs”, in...

Origin of dysconsciousness

From dys- + consciousness or dysconscious + -ness. Coined by academic Joyce Elaine King in 1991 (see quotation).

Questions about dysconsciousness

What does dysconsciousness mean?
Dysconsciousness means a state of impaired or distorted consciousness or awareness, especially in regards to social issues.
How do you use dysconsciousness in a sentence?
If, as Heaney (1984) suggests, critical consciousness "involves an ethical judgement [sic]" about the social order, dysconsciousness accepts it uncritically.
What part of speech is dysconsciousness?
Dysconsciousness is a noun.

Words near dysconsciousness in the dictionary

  1. dysconjugate
  2. dysconnection
  3. dysconnections
  4. dysconnectivity
  5. dysconscious
  6. dysconsciousness
  7. dyscontrol
  8. dyscoordinate
  9. dyscoordinated
  10. dyscoordination
  11. dyscophine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dysconsciousness (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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