Becoming, Beckoning, and Belonging as Educational Activists
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2025.589Keywords:
educational activism, EdD, scholarly practitionersAbstract
This reflective chapter explores the nuanced experiences of two faculty members within a university’s College of Education, one in the nascent stages of their career as an assistant professor and the other a seasoned professor with over three decades of academic service. Their narrative experiences pivot around the intricacies of assuming roles as educational activists within the academic domain, specifically in the context of "be-ing" Ed-activists. As the chapter delves into strategies for supporting and mentoring emerging academics, the authors invite scholarly practitioners pursuing an EdD to embrace activism while fostering a culture of belonging within this realm. This deliberate exploration challenges prevailing Western norms regarding being, knowledge, and success within academia and ultimately contributes to a broader discourse on creating more inclusive and diverse academic environments where all stakeholders actively work to counter injustice.
References
Ahmed, S. (2007). A phenomenology of whiteness. Feminist Theory, 8(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700107078139
Anzaldua, G. (1991). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza. Aunt Lute Books.
Berry, T. (2010). Engaged pedagogy and critical race feminism. Educational Foundations, 24(3–4), 19–26.
Bhabha, H. K., & Rutherford, J. (2006). Third space. Multitudes, 26(3), 95–107.
Bidandi, F., Ambe, A. N., & Mukong, C. H. (2021). Insights and current debates on community engagement in higher education institutions: Perspectives on the University of the Western Cape. Sage Open, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211011467
Cain, L. K., & Velasco, J. C. (2021). Stranded at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and autism: Gray’s story. Disability & Society, 36(3), 358–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2020.1755233
Caldwell-Harris, C. L., & Schwartz, A. M. (2023). Why autistic sociality is different: Reduced interest in competing for social status. Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture, 5(1), 78–95. https://doi.org/10.9707/2833-1508.1145
Carey, R. L., Akiva, T., Abdellatif, H., & Daughtry, K. A. (2021). ‘And school won’t teach me that!’ Urban youth activism programs as transformative sites for critical adolescent learning. Journal of Youth Studies, 24(7), 941–960. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2020.1784400
Deleuze, D., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.
Dempsey, E. E., Moore, C., Richard, A. E., & Smith, I. M. (2020). Moral foundations theory in autism spectrum disorder: A qualitative investigation. Autism, 24(8), 2202–2212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320939331
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1961). The souls of Black folk. Fawcett Publications.
Foucault, M. (1991). The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality. University of Chicago Press.
Gardner, S. K., & Mendoza, P. (Eds.). (2023). On becoming a scholar: Socialization and development in doctoral education. Taylor & Francis.
Greenfield, E. A., & Marks, N. F. (2010). Sense of community as a protective factor against long-term psychological effects of childhood violence. Social Service Review, 84, 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1086/652786
Hillier, A., Gallop, N., Mendes, E., Tellez, D., Buckingham, A., Nizami, A., & OToole, D. (2020). LGBTQ + and autism spectrum disorder: Experiences and challenges. International Journal of Transgender Health, 21(1), 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2019.1594484
hooks, b. (1991). Theory as liberatory practice. Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, 4(1), 1–12.
Hu, Y., Pereira, A. M., Gao, X., Campos, B. M., Derrington, E., Corgnet, B., Zhou, X., Cendes, F., & Dreher, J.-C. (2021). Right temporoparietal junction underlies avoidance of moral transgression in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(8), 1699–1715. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1237-20.2020
Kimball, E. W., Moore, A., Vaccaro, A., Troiano, P. F., & Newman, B. M. (2016). College students with disabilities redefine activism: Self-advocacy, storytelling, and collective action. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 9(3), 245–260. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000031
Kirshner, B. (2015). Youth activism in an era of education inequality (Vol. 2). NYU Press.
Kitchen, P., Williams, A., & Chowhan, J. (2012). Sense of community belonging and health in Canada: A regional analysis. Social Indicators Research, 107, 103–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9830-9
Luguetti, C., & Oliver, K. L. (2019). ‘I became a teacher that respects the kids’ voices’: Challenges and facilitators pre-service teachers faced in learning an activist approach. Sport, Education and Society, 25(4), 423–435. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2019.1601620
McClure, C. L. (2021). Creating a culture of activism in the education doctorate. Impacting Education, 6(1), 53–56. https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2021.128
Muwanguzi, E., Dickens, S. C., & Kibaya, E. (2023). An analysis of community engagement in higher education: A conceptual exploration. Development, 6(3), 120–129. https://www.doi.org/10.52589/BJELDP-JX4KJGWO
Pinar, W. F. (1978). The reconceptualisation of curriculum studies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 10(3), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027780100303
Pinar, W. F. (2005). Complicated conversation: Occasions for “intellectual breakthrough” in the internationalization of curriculum studies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1(1), 1–26.
Purcell, J. W. (2017). Community‐engaged pedagogy in the virtual classroom: Integrating eService‐learning into online leadership education. Journal of Leadership Studies, 11(1), 65–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21515
Shainis, L. (2020). How we can shift the power imbalance in adult education to deepen a sense of belonging, improve program outcomes, and create a more equitable society. COABE Journal: The Resource for Adult Education, 9(2), 68–74.
Shapira, S., & Granek, L. (2019). Negotiating psychiatric cisgenderism-ableism in the transgender-autism nexus. Feminism & Psychology, 29(4), 494–513. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353519850843
Shields, M. (2008). Community belonging and self-perceived health. Health Reports, 19(2), 51–60.
Soedirgo, J., & Glas, A. (2020). Toward active reflexivity: Positionality and practice in the production of knowledge. PS: Political Science & Politics, 53(3), 527–531. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096519002233
Stetsenko, A. (2020). Critical challenges in cultural-historical activity theory: The urgency of agency. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 16(2), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2020160202
Storey, V. A., & Fletcher, R. (2023). Developing scholar activists: The role of the EdD. Impacting Education, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2023.277
Suk, J. (2015). Becoming deterritorialized: Reading Tim Etchells’ The broken world after Gilles Deleuze. American and British Studies Annual, 8, 65–73.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Whitney Neumeyer Roach, Rhonda Jeffries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.
