Journal of Culture and Values in Education

Research as Activism: Bridging Knowledge and Action for Transformational Change

Ardavan Eizadirad, Emin Kilinc, Jennifer Straub — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 18:51:24 +0300

Research as Activism is the fusion of scholarly inquiry with intentional advocacy and action. It transcends academic exploration by actively challenging systemic inequities and injustices, engaging marginalized communities, and driving tangible social change (hooks, 2003). Research as activism embodies a commitment to using research methodologies, epistemologies, personalized and institutional privilege, and accessible dissemination to dismantle oppressive structures, promote justice, and empower and centre voices often unheard, dismissed, silenced, or marginalized in traditional academic discourse or in community spaces (Eizadirad et al., 2023; Battiste, 2013; Simpson, 2017). As Audre Lorde (1984) emphasizes, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives” (p. 138).

Remembering Lost Lives and Collective Healing from Trauma: Homicides, Incarceration, and Pain-Driven Advocacy in the Jane and Finch Community

Ardavan Eizadirad, Devon Jones, Greg Leslie, Tamasha Grant — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 09:28:32 +0300

This article serves as a vessel for knowledge mobilization and activism as research, intertwining remembrance of lost lives and communal healing by sharing collective pain amongst the authors and bolstering mutual support. Guided by personal encounters with violence including death, homicides, and incarceration, four authors comprising a teacher, social worker, and two community activists, unveil their 20-year+ advocacy journey in the Jane and Finch community in Toronto, Canada including their involvement with programs and services through the non-profit organization Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education (YAAACE). The pain and suffering are shared as symptoms of systemic trauma inflicted on the community and how the trauma is perpetuated through institutional neglect for racialized under-resourced communities. The conversations are examined through an intersectional and Critical Race Theory lens, centering life experiences associated with trauma and systemic violence. Lived experiences and emotions are shared as valuable data through duoethnography as a methodology, emphasizing how inspiration is harnessed from the pain and trauma to guide community advocacy. Effective coping and healing strategies are outlined from various vantage points. Overall, the article contributes to filling in the research gap by centering racialized personal narratives in the Canadian context, offering nuanced lessons for integrating research and activism, and showcasing tangible ways to support the needs of youth and families through community-oriented, trauma-informed approaches.

Reclaiming Narratives - Muslim Women Navigating Activism in Educational Research Implications and Recommendations for Educators

Zainab Zafar, Aurra Startup — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 09:34:31 +0300

This chapter delves into the intricate dynamics of activism within educational research within the context of resistance and justice within settler-colonial states from Turtle Island and beyond. Drawing inspiration from Eve Tuck's (2010) concept of shifting from damage-centered research to desire-based research and Sara Ahmed's (2010) work on embodying what it means to be a killjoy, we endeavour to confront and address prevailing tensions we face as visibly identified Muslim women researchers and educators. We position ourselves to navigate the complexities of our lived experiences and advocate for justice in the current climate. We come together from Pakistani and Palestinian familial lineages to share our lived experiences and specific testimonies of ‘othering’ in educational research and activism. Using an anti-colonial and desire-based framework, we explore the framing and tensions of Orientalism and the struggle against it. We also contemplate our identities, positionalities and stances within educational research. Drawing strength from Indigenous cultures and Islamic philosophies, we seek to advocate for disruption, refusal and subversion, essential to activist research. We conclude with implications for educators, universities, researchers, schools, communities, and beyond. We aim to illuminate the paths we navigate as activist researchers, harnessing our collective experiences and reframing the research approach through a desire-based approach.

World, Do You Hear Me?: Reimagining Black Boys’ Voice in Early Childhood Education

Marcus Wayne Johnson — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 09:39:54 +0300

This study interrogates the metanarrative surrounding Black boys in early childhood education and aims to endorse their role of participant-voice research in charting future scholarly endeavors. To do so, researchers are urged to be at the forefront of taking on this more comprehensive approach to understanding children’s meaning-making and actions. Applying the theoretical frameworks of critical childhood studies and praxis, underpinned by consequential research in education as the methodology, a reflective academic approach was initiated. This intellectual exercise prompts a shift from the pervasive “at-risk” label towards recognizing Black Boys as “at-resourced” – capable and valuable contributors to educational and social environments. This study contributes to a reimagined educational narrative, whereby the foregrounding of Black boys’ voices in early childhood education is valued and normalized.

Institutional Logics of Indigenization in Canadian Higher Education: The Role of Critical Policy Analysis as a Research Tool to Activate Social Change

Danielle Gardiner Milln — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 09:44:27 +0300

A common approach to adopting large-scale social changes in organizations is to codify them within high-level policies, including strategic plans. One such social change with increasing attention is the move towards “Indigenization” throughout all organizations in Canada, with national and international policy imperatives supporting its robust enactment. To understand the overt and covert components of such policies to understand how such large-scale social changes might be codified and framed, critical policy analysis (CPA) is a useful methodological tool to support such policy implementation and inform further activism. To illustrate this, CPA is used in this study to highlight how Indigenous-centric strategic plans (ISPs) conceptualize Indigenization across the U15 institutions in Canada, the largest group of research-intensive institutions spanning the country with educational communities totalling hundreds of thousands of students, staff, faculty, and community connections. The representations of Indigenization in these ISPs are analyzed using Gaudry & Lorenz’s (2018) conceptual framework of Indigenization in higher education, finding that the ISPs largely represent an inclusionary approach to Indigenization, falling short of advancing reconciliatory or decolonial forms of Indigenization. Understanding that ISPs predominantly enable inclusionary Indigenization (Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018) illuminates the institutional logics that underpin Canadian higher education, namely that retaining power structures historically constructed through colonial processes are not overtly challenged by the actions outlined in the ISPs. Though directly acknowledging the need for Indigenization within higher education ISPs is a substantial advancement towards the social reality envisaged by the TRC (2015), this analysis spotlights where further activism is needed, including by educational leaders, to advance substantial reformation of colonial institutional logics within Canadian higher education.

Transforming the Canadian Policy Agenda for School-Based Prevention of Youth Homelessness: Research as Activism

Rebecca Stroud, Mélina Poulin, Jacqueline Sohn, Jacqueline Kennelly — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Youth homelessness (YH) demands transformative changes in research, education, and public policy. Distinct from adult homelessness (AH), poorly addressed YH may lead to AH. Prevailing media narratives and policy communications perpetuate stigma and are unrepresentative of youth’s lived experiences, hindering the educational sector’s capacity to implement supportive measures in youth homelessness prevention. Schools are well poised to provide preventative and mitigative supports to address YH, yet the work intensification of educators has reached a point of fatigue, thus threatening support efficacy. We conceptualize research as activism and propose that policy can be engaged as a matter of social justice and a means to transform society via research and knowledge mobilization (KMb). Our Canadian environmental scan informs several studies in progress, which share goals to: prevent YH; reduce harms from intersectional issues to YH; and ameliorate conditions for resilience pertaining to youth in or at risk of homelessness. We call for a multi-pronged approach to engage stakeholders and the education sector in addressing this high-stakes issue disproportionately affecting underserved youth. Our findings chart the next steps of this research as activism cycle.

Using Duoethnography to Connect the Disability Justice Principles to Education Research about Disabled Populations on Campus

Kathleen Clarke, Danielle Lorenz — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 05:36:49 +0300

The terms disability inclusion, disability rights, and disability justice are often used somewhat interchangeably, but have distinct meanings within academe more broadly and academic research contexts. The purpose of this investigation was to explore these concepts in relation to our research and present the way in which we (as education researchers) grappled with what a critical, disability justice-informed research methodology involves. We used a qualitative, duoethnographic research approach as it is both a reflection of social justice and a method to advance it (Sawyer & Norris, 2013). We engaged in virtual, asynchronous and synchronous dialogues in writing and audio formats to reflect, critique, question, and eventually, generate new ideas and ways of moving forward. In the paper, we first consider how the Disability Justice Principles from Sins Invalid (2019) could be connected to our current research practices using two questions about ethical considerations as well as research methodologies and frameworks. We then theorize how education researchers can intentionally incorporate activism throughout each stage of the research process. A Disability Justice-informed education research framework is proposed for use with research about disabled populations in higher education. This framework addresses the relationship between stages of the research process, disability inclusion, and disability justice, which was the ongoing debate throughout our dialogues.

Building Bridges: Catalyzing Institutional Change at Utah State University via Experiential Learning with Ute and Navajo Students

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 05:43:24 +0300

This article presents the development, implementation, and impact of a cultural competence course initiated by the Mentoring and Encouraging Academic Success (MESAS) Program at Utah State University (USU). The MESAS Program supports American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students through various initiatives, including the Faculty Advocate initiative, talking circles, the Indigenous Knowledge Symposium, and the Native American Living/Learning Community. Under MESAS, the cultural competence course aims to enhance appreciation among faculty, staff, and non-Indigenous students for the contributions of Native American and other underrepresented groups, while addressing institutional barriers to their academic success and social well-being. The course has been adapted for faculty, staff, and graduate students involved in roles such as summer research mentoring and emphasizing the importance of cultural sensitivity in creating a supportive environment for Native American students, particularly those transitioning between campuses. The article also highlights a case study of a USU professor who applied the course's teachings in interactions with students from the Ute Tribe and Navajo Nation, illustrating the practical application of Culturally Responsive Teaching practices and the Funds of Knowledge framework. Overall, the study highlights the course's positive impact on fostering inclusive teaching practices and deepening relationships with Native American students. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on integrating cultural competence in higher education to enhance the experiences of underrepresented student populations.

Outreach as Research Activism: Using STEM Outreach as a bridge to Social Change

Avis Eileen Beek, Jennifer Michelle Straub — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 05:54:58 +0300

The STEM Explorers outreach project, headed by a Faculty of Education at a University in Ontario, Canada, brings free, hands-on, and in-community science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach events to children and their families from groups under-represented in STEM education and careers. The project provides pre-service teachers with experience facilitating inclusive approaches to STEM education and also creates a context to explore their conceptions of activism. The purpose of this phenomenographic research is to describe the experiences of these aspiring teachers to better understand the ways that outreach initiatives can impact their role as STEM education activists. Findings suggest that a positive STEM educator identity, a program of integrated and student-centered STEM learning, and possessing an activist sense of purpose, contribute to the degree to which pre-service teachers regard themselves as STEM education activists.

The Stories of Us: Queer Tamils and Their Experiences Reclaiming Culture and Heritage in Canada

Manchari Paranthahan — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 06:01:42 +0300

“The Stories Of Us” considers the ways that culture, heritage, and rituals come together. This ethnographic study is guided by methodologies of narrative photovoice that speak to the lived experiences of how five 2nd Generation Queer Tamil Canadians living in Toronto/Scarborough reclaim their Tamil culture and heritage as Queer people living in the West. The intersectional marginalization Queer Tamil people face often ostracizes them from both their Tamil community as well as their Queer community. The participants of this study reflected on their identities growing up as well as how they’ve engaged with community at different stages of their Queer journey, speaking to their experiences reclaiming their cultural identity as Queer people. Based on the lived experiences of the participants, this data-based study looks at the creative ways that Queer Tamils take up space and reclaim their cultural heritage as a politically and historically silenced community.

Inquiry for Social Transformation: Black Mother Scholars Redefining Scholarly Inquiry Through Black Artistic Expression

Stephanie Fearon — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 07:32:26 +0300

Writing, dancing, drawing, spittin’ rhymes, and other artistic expressions have long offered us, Black mother scholars, opportunities to reaffirm our humanity amid oppression (Fearon, 2023). Art offers Black mother scholars space to reconceptualise inquiry in ways that engage our families, challenge injustices, and usher social change within the educational milieu and beyond. The centring of Black artistic expression in educational research invites Black mother scholars to affirm the parts of ourselves, our families, and our communities that dominant forms of inquiry and anti-Blackness have sought to discredit. Educational research grounded in Black artistic expression compels us all to reimagine scholarly inquiry for social transformation. In this paper, I critically reflect on an arts-informed research study I led with a group of Black Canadian mothers who are adult literacy learners. In this reflexive piece, I explore how grounding research practices in Black art allows opportunities for storytelling, story listening, and Black refusal. Specifically, this paper explores the ways Black art supports researchers in addressing power differentials inherent in inquiry processes. The paper concludes with a series of reflective questions challenging scholars, especially Black mother scholars, to redefine traditional academic boundaries and recommit to social transformation through the arts.

At the Cost of Momentum: The Case for Truth-Grounded Activism

Daniel John Anderson, Susan T. Gardner — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

In the face of injustice, there is often a strong desire to mobilize others to immediate action. However, building public support is difficult when the issue is complicated. This leaves many activists tempted to present matters in simple, undifferentiated terms, as nuance can dampen momentum. However, oversimplification tends to be at odds with truth and it is this tension, between truth and activism, that is the focus of this paper. We begin by exploring the kind of communication that best mobilizes masses of people and note the inverse relationship between motivational as opposed to truthful communication. We then note that, though propaganda is more efficient in creating momentum, it nonetheless carries inherent dangers in that it may (i) over focus on symptoms rather than the disease; (ii) fuel authoritarian personality-types; and (iii) undermine the lifeblood of democracy. We conclude by suggesting that Philosophy for Children is a welcome educational response to this problem because it focuses on relevant contemporary issues, while fostering thinking skills that has the potential to lead to long lasting change grounded in truth. Ultimately the message is that a society and its citizens will do better by embracing pedagogical interventions aimed at fostering “active thinkers” rather than “activists.”