Abstract
There is a common trope in academia that the purpose of research is to give a voice to the voiceless. However, as critical scholars, we recognize that this viewpoint perpetuates a deficit lens and ignores and/or minimizes the agency that individuals already hold. So when the 2019–2020 Editorial Board was deciding on a theme for the Journal’s next Special Issue, rather than thinking of any person as “voiceless,” we knew we wanted to instead, “pass the mic” to amplify voices and perspectives that are not always centered in academia. Promoting Access and Critical Literacy is a function of our values as the Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs (JCSHESA). Throughout every aspect of the publication process, we center practices of care and wholeness, while also pushing authors and each other to think more critically about how our scholarship can be more collaborative and applicable to the communities we serve. With this Special Issue, we chose to highlight critical literacy as a tool for meaning-making, and as a lens to examine and expose systems of oppression. Critical literacy, and this Special Issue, serves to remind the reader that folks who may not ascribe to the identity of “critical scholar” nor have access to the academy, still maintain important critical perspectives.
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Recommended Citation
Curtis, Sydney and Leal, Dianey R.
(2020)
"Promoting Access & Critical Literacy: Working Within, Beyond, and Against the Academy,"
Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs: Vol. 5
:
Iss.
3
, Article 1.
Available at:
https://ecommons.luc.edu/jcshesa/vol5/iss3/1