Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

New article in Critical Education: Global Pedagogy and the Question of Palestine: A Dialogue

Global Pedagogy and the Question of Palestine: A Dialogue

Linda Herrera
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Michael A. Peters
Beijing Normal University / University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v16i4.187433 

Keywords: Palestine in Critical Pedagogy, Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy, popular education, empowerment, grassroots, global citizenship, genocide, Anti-colonial pedagogy

Abstract

Global pedagogy refers to a broad, ethically grounded approach to education that extends beyond national boundaries and emphasizes the collective responsibility to teach and learn about interconnected global crises and historical injustices. The question of Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza serve as the “canary in the coalmine”. Its suppression is not an isolated phenomenon but a diagnostic for a wider authoritarian turn that seeks to foreclose the very possibility of critical, transnational solidarity. In this dialogue, Michel Peters, a philosopher of education, and Linda Herrera, a critical anthropologist of education in the Middle East, engage in a dialogue about how educators can keep critical thought and solidarity alive by partaking in practices that are resilient, resourceful, and relentlessly focused on building counter-publics. These requires embracing a “fugitive” pedagogy, curating and archiving counter-memories, and building transnational literacies of solidarity.

Author Biographies

Linda Herrera, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Linda Herrera is Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has researched, written about, and taught courses on education and power in the MENA region, qualitative research methods (with a focus on critical ethnography and oral history), international development policy, youth and generations, childhood in global context, the social effects of technological change, and critical democracy and citizenship education. Her books include, Education 2.0: Chronicles of Technological and Cultural Change in Egypt (OUP, 2025), Educating Egypt: Civic Values and Ideological Struggles (American University in Cairo Press, 2022), Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-first Century (University of California Press, 2021), Revolution in the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet (Verso, 2014), Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (Routledge, 2014), Being young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Oxford University Press, 2010), and Cultures of Arab Schooling: Critical Ethnographies from Egypt (State University of New York Press, 2006).

Michael A. Peters, Beijing Normal University / University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Michael A. Peters is Distinguished Professor of Education at Beijing Normal University Faculty of Education PRC, and Emeritus Professor in Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He is the executive editor of the journal, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and founding editor of five international journals, Policy Futures in Education, E-Learning and Digital Media (SAGE), and Knowledge Cultures (Addleton), The Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy (Springer), Open Review of Education Research (T&F). His interests are in philosophy, education and social policy and he has written over eighty books, including most recently: Wittgenstein and Education: Pedagogical Investigations, (2017) with Jeff Stickney, The Global Financial Crisis and the Restructuring of Education (2015), Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy (2015) both with Tina Besley, Education Philosophy and Politics: Selected Works (2011); Education, Cognitive Capitalism and Digital Labour (2011), with Ergin Bulut; and Neoliberalism and After? Education, Social Policy and the Crisis of Capitalism (2011). He has acted as an advisor to governments and UNESCO on these and related matters in the USA, Scotland, New Zealand, South Africa and the European Union. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ in 2010, a Fellow in 2018, and awarded honorary doctorates by State University of New York (SUNY) in 2012 and University of Aalborg in 2015.

Special Issue Call for Papers — THE GREAT BEYOND: SURPASSING HISTORICAL DAMAGE AND PIVOTING TOWARDS PROTECTING BLACK BOYS

[Click to enlarge images]

Special Issue Call for Papers — THE GREAT BEYOND: SURPASSING HISTORICAL DAMAGE AND PIVOTING TOWARDS PROTECTING BLACK BOYS

Guest Editors:

John A. Williams III – Texas A&M University
Daniel Thomas III – Texas A&M University
Marcus W. Johnson – Texas A&M University

Despite the resilience and brilliance of Black boys, they continue to face historical and systemic challenges rooted in institutional racism, socioeconomic inequity, and educational disparities (Andrews, 2023; Bryan, 2021; James, 2012; Noguera, 2009). Literature suggests that Black boys are not a monolith and their experiences vary along the lines of various social constructs within the U.S. (e.g., socioeconomics, regional origins, urbanicity, spirituality, etc.) (Dumas & Nelson, 2016; Walker et al., 2022). When discussing the ramifications that continue to linger over Black boys in various environments, there is still an opportunity to redress and critique current and historical elements that bred those conditions that damage Black boys. To look and proceed forward with applicable solutions, Black boys require that researchers, community activists, and policymakers stop glamorizing practices, policies, approaches, and programs that do not unequivocally protect Black boys. The multidimensionality that Black boys possess should be protected, not exploited, championed, not oppressed (Ladson-Billings, 2011; Warren et al., 2022; Wint et al., 2022). In securing a safer environment for Black boys, specifically in the U.S., research is needed that expands the boundaries into territories that question age-old practices and models that, when investigated, have no positive bearing on Black boys – yet they are still alive and well.

This special issue seeks to illuminate pathways to critique long-standing and often ignored structures and practices (e.g., corporal punishment, tracking, high-stakes testing) that still foster damaging outcomes for Black boys, while centering research and policy approaches that actively protect, promote, and empower them for excellence.

The issue aims to move beyond documenting harm towards actionable solutions that restore, reinforce, and celebrate Black boys’ full humanity. The special issue seeks manuscripts that are empirical (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods) or conceptual and contain contextually rich historical examinations of Black boys in education and society. We seek scholars with a U.S. and international perspective on Black boys and hope to have scholarship from a myriad of individuals (graduate students, junior and senior scholars).

All abstracts should be emailed to John A. Williams III (jwilliams3@tamu.edu) with the subject line “Critical Education Special Issue: Black Boys.” Abstracts due: February 1, 2016.

 Each manuscript will go through a double blind peer review, and all authors invited to submit a manuscript will be required to serve as peer reviewers.

 Should you have any questions, please reach out to John A. Williams III, jwilliams3@tamu.edu.

 References

Andrews, D. C. (2023). Black boys in middle school: Toward first-class citizenship in a first-class society. In Advancing Black Male Student Success from Preschool Through Ph.D. (pp. 45-60). Routledge.

Bryan, N. (2021). Remembering Tamir Rice and other Black boy victims: Imagining Black playcrit literacies inside and outside urban literacy education. Urban Education, 56(5), 744-7710.

Dumas, M. J., & Nelson, J. D. (2016). (Re) Imagining Black boyhood: Toward a critical framework for educational research. Harvard Educational Review, 86(1), 27-47.

James, C. E. (2012). Students “at risk” stereotypes and the schooling of Black boys. Urban Education, 47(2), 464-494.

Ladson Billings, G. (2011). Boyz to men? Teaching to restore Black boys’ childhood. Race ethnicity and education, 14(1), 7-15.

Noguera, P. A. (2009). The trouble with black boys:… And other reflections on race, equity, and the future of public education. John Wiley & Sons.

Walker, L., Goings, R. B., & Henderson, D. X. (2022). Unpacking race-related trauma for Black boys: Implications for school administrators and school resource officers. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education, 1(3), 74-89.

Warren, C. A., Andrews, D. J. C., & Flennaugh, T. K. (2022). Connection, antiblackness, and positive relationships that (re) humanize Black boys’ experience of school. Teachers College Record, 124(1),111-142.

Wint, K. M., Opara, I., Gordon, R., & Brooms, D. R. (2022). Countering educational disparities among Black boys and Black adolescent boys from pre-k to high school: A life course-intersectional perspective. The Urban Review, 54(2), 183-206.

https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/announcement/view/182282

Workplace welcomes new Co-Editor Rhiannon M. Maton

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor is pleased to announce the addition of new co-editor. Rhiannon M. Maton, PhD is Associate Professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department at the State University of New York at Cortland. Dr. Maton will join Workplace as co-editor in January 2026.

Dr. Maton’s scholarship examines the intersections of teachers’ work, labor activism, and educational inequality across Canada and the U.S. Trained as a critical scholar of education with a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, Maton’s work brings together labor studies, educational leadership, and critical educational foundations to illuminate how educators understand, resist, and transform the social and material conditions of their work.

Her research has appeared in leading international journals including Teachers College Record; Curriculum Inquiry; History of Education Quarterly; Critical Studies in Education; Journal of Educational Change; and Gender, Work & Organization. She regularly publishes in Critical Education, Workplace, and Spectre journals, and strives to reach a practitioner and public audience through the creative use of multigenre communication methods. Across these publications and others, she advances critical and foresightful analyses of teachers’ work, educators’ grassroots organizing and unions, and the ongoing tensions between a common good ethic and the structural and institutional constraints of public schooling. Her scholarship consistently foregrounds the voices of educator practitioners, organizers, and activists, while drawing attention to their collective potency in challenging structural inequities and expanding the democratic possibilities of schooling. Maton’s research contributions have been recognized through several recent honors, including the Waring & DiNardo Outstanding Achievement in Research Award, which acknowledges her sustained impact on critical scholarship on teachers’ work and labor justice.

In addition to her research, Maton brings extensive editorial experience to her new role as Co-Editor of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor. She currently serves as Managing Editor of Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, where she supports feminist, anti-colonial, and gender justice-oriented scholarship through collaborative editorial processes. She views editorial work as a necessary space for elevating the intellectual strength and contributions of the radical left, and is committed to providing one-on-one mentorship and developmental writing support to new and emerging scholars—particularly those historically marginalized in academia.

Maton also plays a significant role in curating and advancing themed scholarship in the fields of labor organizing and teachers’ work. She is a co-editor of the Routledge series Critical Perspectives on Teaching and Teachers’ Work, alongside Denisha Jones and Arlo Kempf. This series brings together scholarship that examines teachers’ labor, professionalism, activism, and the broader social, political, and economic contexts that shape educators’ work globally. Through this role, Maton supports book projects that push the field in new theoretical and political directions, deepening scholarly engagement with issues of justice, labor, and educational transformation.

Her editorial experience also includes guest-editing four special issues of Critical Education with Erin Dyke and Lauren Ware Stark, which highlight interdisciplinary work on educator activism, transformative pedagogies, and the political economies of schooling. Most recently, she co-edited the Routledge Handbook on Teachers’ Work: International Perspectives on Research and Practice with Nina Bascia, a landmark volume mapping the global terrain of educators’ labor, professionalism, and collective action.

Across her research and editorial leadership, Maton remains committed to cultivating rigorous, accessible, and socially engaged scholarship. She looks forward to supporting authors in developing contributions that deepen critical conversations about K-12 and higher education, academic labor, and radical equity-oriented social transformation.

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Workplace published its first issue in1998.  Closely connected to activism emerging from the Graduate Student Caucus of the Modern Language Association, the journal’s founding editors were Marc Bousquet (then of the University of Louisville) and Kent Puckett (then of Columbia University, currently UC Berkeley). The journal was originally hosted by the University of Louisville and moved to the University of British Columbia in 2012 with the archive of past issues republished in 2014 on the Open Journal System platform and hosted by the UBC Library.

Previous editors of Workplace include Stephen Petrina (University of British Columbia), Chris Carter (University of Oklahoma), Gordon Lafer (University of Oregon), Gary Rhoades (University of Arizona), Bruce Simon (State University of New York at Fredonia), Bill Vaughn (Central Missouri State University) and
Katherine Wills (then of University of Louisville, currently Indiana University Purdue University Columbus).

Workplace: A Journal of Academic Labor is a refereed, diamond open access journal published by the Institute for Critical Education Studies (ICES) and a collective of scholars in critical university studies, or critical higher education, promoting dignity and integrity in academic work. Contributions are aimed at higher education workplace scholar-activism and dialogue on all issues of academic labor.

New issue of Critical Education, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2025)

Vol. 16 No. 4 (2025)

Articles

Empowering Changemakers:
Activist Pedagogy in a Democratic School 
Crystena Parker-Shandal

The Future of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in Education 
Keep, Reform, or Dismantle? 
Ardavan Eizadirad, Gerald Walton

Learning Decision-Making and Democratic Participation in Early Primary Education 
A Case Study in Catalonia 
Clara Gallart , Jordi Castellví

Educational Outcomes of Indigenous Students Living in Remote Reserve Communities 
Complex and Multifaceted Indigenous Poverty
Kristen Anderson, Saiqa Azam

Fail Fast: The Discourse of Quality Research Perpetuated by Leadership at The Institute of Education Sciences
Jacob Bennett, Vonna Hemmler

Investigating Education, Class Antagonisms and Solidarity: Toward Critical Humanist Democratic Societies

Critical Humanism and Problems of Change 
Arturo Rodriguez, Kevin R. Magill

The Emergence of Narrative and the Discovery of Humanism
Curriculum and Research Lessons from the Italian Renaissance
Saville Kushner

“More beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said”: 9/11, BLM, and the creation of an American identity
Joanna Batt, Michael L. Joseph, Anthony L. Brown

Meet-and-Defer
The Rhetorical Unmaking of Graduate Academic Labor at the University of Maryland 
Samuel DiBella

Book & Media Reviews

A Sociopolitical Agenda for TESOL Teacher Education, by Peter I. De Costa and Ozgehan Uştuk (Eds.), Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, 208 pp., $ 108, (ebook), ISBN 9781350262850
Hossein Davari, Saeed Nourzadeh

Tell UBC: Keep the IDF Off Our Campus

Tell UBC: Keep the IDF Off Our Campus

On Nov 17th at 2:00pm, Hillel UBC will host an israeli occupation forces (IOF) soldier on UBC’s Vancouver campus. This comes one week after another IOF Soldier violently threw five students out of a locked room at Toronto Metropolitan University, leaving some hospitalized. Join us in telling UBC that the IOF is not welcome on campus.

The invited soldier, Itai Reuveni, served in active duty with the IOF’s 35th Paratroopers Brigade from 2001-2004, when the Brigade was accused of war crimes including unlawful killings and collective punishment in the Palestinian Territories. In October 2023, he rejoined the genocidal IOF to escalate against the Lebanese border. He is currently a reservist combat medic with the 35th paratroopers.

Reuveni is speaking at Hillel in his role as Director of Communications at NGO Monitor, a right-wing organization with close ties to the israeli government. NGO Monitor was founded on the basis of refusing to accept and abide by human rights and international law frameworks following the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. This group routinely defames nonprofits (including student groups) that speak up for Palestinian rights.

We all saw what happened the last time UBC welcome IOF war criminals to campus during the Invictus Games. Students and staff were harassed, followed, and interrogated by militarized police around campus. A staff member was illegally detained while doing his job. This is a stain on UBC’s reputation. Shame on this university for continuing to platform war criminals who have participated in genocide.

The presence of IOF soldiers threatens the safety of students, staff, and faculty at UBC, especially Palestinian community members. UBC must commit to keeping its community safe. Join us in calling on the UBC President and UBC administration to keep the IOF off campus.

[Follow above link to send letter to UBC administration]

Palestine Under (Cease) Fire: The Struggle Continues

Palestine Under Fire: The Struggle Continues

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 | 5:00–7:00 PM

LEW FORUM, ALLARD HALL (UBC)

SPEAKERS WILL ADDRESS:

DISABILITY, MAIMING, AND DEBILITATION

LEBANON AND REGIONAL DYNAMICS

ICJ RULINGS ON OCCUPATION AND APARTHEID

MODERATED DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW. ALL ARE WELCOME.

Registration link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_82j9T8kEm2VrL7M

#freepalestine #UBC #UBCFaculty4Palestine

 

UBC Faculty for Palestine

F4P is a voluntary association of over 100 UBC full and part-time faculty and staff who share a commitment to support the struggle for Palestinian liberation from Israeli Apartheid and Occupation based on the principles of anticolonialism, anti-racism and social justice. #UBC #FacultyForPalestine

BCCLA: Reverse Kneecap Travel Ban

Posted on September 19, 2025
by BCCLA

BCCLA condemns the Liberal government’s unfounded, biased, and authoritarian decision to bar Irish-language rap group Kneecap from Canada, preventing them from performing their scheduled shows in October. In our view, this is another clear example of how Canadian governments are systematically targeting voices speaking out against genocide.

The Canadian government’s decision to smear Kneecap publicly as promoters of antisemitism, terrorism, and hate reflects not only the dangerous conflation of antisemitism with opposition to Israel’s actions, but also a tired, colonial form of anti-Irish bias that has no place in Canada.

Kneecap is a part of a resurgence of Indigenous Irish language and culture, and a powerful voice against colonial violence and for anti-sectarian connection through art.

Although there have been calls from a pro-Israel lobby for several months to ban Kneecap, the Canadian government has made this decision so close to their concert dates that it effectively ensures their artistic expression in Canada is silenced.

Something similar happened to BCCLA this year, when the BC Ministry of Education attempted to sabotage our 20th Youth Conference by spreading misinformation about BCCLA and one of our conference presenters, Teachers for Palestine, a few days before the event.

Without verification, the Ministry claimed that the Teachers for Palestine presenters were associated with Samidoun – an organization listed under Canada’s extremely flawed, opaque, and heavily-criticized terrorist listing apparatus. Canadian governments have used this listing to suppress free expression in support of Palestine by throwing out claims of association.

The Ministry wrote to all high school Superintendents in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, who then wrote to Principals (who passed this message on to teachers and parents) instructing schools not to attend. Over a hundred students were pulled from the event.

Surrey’s Superintendent told BCCLA: “Students can access a variety of learning resources to enhance their learning in relation to civil rights which do not involve a risk of potential contact with members of a terrorist organization.”

Despite BCCLA giving the government a chance to correct their admitted mistake, no real action has been taken to undo the harm they caused. This was an abuse of power, aimed at undermining our efforts to educate youth about censorship, human rights, and community organizing in the face of authoritarianism and government repression.

We know that Kneecap and BCCLA are not the exception. Across Canada, no matter how big or small, acts of free expression in support of Palestine are being targeted and silenced.

Sign BCCLA petition to reverse Kneecap Travel Ban imposed by the Canadian government.