Tag Archives: Critical Education

Critical Education v17 n3 (August 2026)

Critical Education
Volume 17, Number 3
2026

This issue of Critical Education includes the second instalment of our Special Section on Palestinian Liberation in Education, which focuses on solidarities and activism for a free Palestine.

The general Articles section includes studies of stupidity as a pedagogical commitment; how the debate on smartphones in schools hides deeper social issues; the ways in which doctoral students experience and navigate power within supervisory relationships; the effects of and resistance to policies promoting privatization of education; academic capitalism and accreditation in higher education; the lived experiences of racialized educators; and trauma-informed relational pedagogy.

The Book and Media Reviews section examines two books published earlier this year: Beyond Bad Apples: Teacher Education for Police-Free Schools and AI Schools and the New Child Labor.

Articles

Palestinian Liberation in Education: Solidarities and Activism for a Free Palestine

Book & Media Reviews

New issue of Critical Education includes translation of Paulo Freire lecture from 1967


This new issue of Critical Education (Vol. 17 No. 2) includes translation of a lecture given by Paulo Freire at a 1967 conference held in Santiago under the sponsorship of the Organization of American States, the government of Chile, and the University of Chile. Scholars from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, and The Netherlands contribute articles on education of justice-involved youth; pedagogies of resistance; Gen-AI solutionism; white privilege in teacher hiring policies; how the rise of anti-wokeness upholds and nourishes systemic oppression; and former students’ experiences in Sudbury model schools, which emphasize student autonomy, egalitarian relationships, and minimal hierarchy. In addition, there are reviews of books by Henry A. Giroux (Revised edition of Teachers as Intellectuals) and Marc Spooner and James McNinch (Knowledge Under Siege: Charting a Future for Universities).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v17i2 
Published: 2026-05-17

Articles

Book & Media Reviews

Call for Submissions: Teaching for EcoJustice in an Era of Polycrisis

Teaching for EcoJustice in an Era of Polycrisis

A Special Issue for Critical Education

Co-Editors:
Brandon Edwards-Schuth, Augusta University
Maria Helena Saari, University of Oulu

We invite submissions for a special issue devoted to the theme of “Teaching for Multispecies Justice in an Era of Polycrisis.” This special issue seeks scholarship that critically examines the role of education in addressing the interrelated systemic injustices and logics of harm directed toward both human and more-than-human lives. As we face an intensifying polycrisis—characterized by the entanglement of climate catastrophe, capitalism, mass extinction, social inequities, and ongoing legacies of colonialism (Homer-Dixon, & Rockström, 2022; Homer-Dixon et al., 2022)—questions of justice, pedagogy, and educational transformation become urgent imperatives. We welcome contributions that explore how educators, teacher-educators, and scholars are reimagining educational practice to resist dominant cultural assumptions undergirding the polycrisis and to center multispecies flourishing.

Drawing from the fields of EcoJustice Education (Lupinacci et al., 2018; Martusewicz et al., 2021), Multispecies Justice-oriented education (Rautio et al., 2021; Tammi et al., 2023; Saari, 2025), critical ecopedagogies (Edwards-Schuth & Lupinacci, 2021; Lupinacci et al., 2023), Indigenous land based decolonizing pedagogies (Basso, 1996; Tuck et al., 2014), Critical Animal Studies (Corman & Vandrovcová, 2014; Nocella II et al., 2014; Pedersen, 2025), Earth Democracy (Shiva, 2015) and prefigurative politics (Raekstad & Gradin, 2020), and related frameworks, this special issue asks:

  • How has education become a transformative practice that challenges anthropocentrism, human supremacy, and hierarchical ways of being?
  • What pedagogical approaches enable learners to recognize, resist, and reconstitute relationships with the more-than-human world in ways that support social and environmental justice?
  • What can we learn with/from the more-than-human and land to (re)imagine ways of being in the here and now, and who/what counts as teachers/educators?
  • What kinds of learning and praxis occurs beyond formal classrooms that are essential to doing

Social and Environmental Justice?

We are particularly interested in work emerging from educational contexts—including but not limited to teacher education, K-12 classrooms, higher education, and community-based learning—that demonstrates how critical, creative, and arts-based pedagogies can foster multispecies consciousness and scholar-activist engagement with the polycrisis. We seek interdisciplinary contributions from environmental education, educational philosophy, curriculum studies, cultural studies of education, geography, anthropology, Indigenous studies, science and technology studies, and related fields. We especially welcome submissions from diverse contexts and bioregions, activists, and LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC perspectives.

Topics could include:

  • Ecocritical projects in teacher education
  • Teacher learning and professional development around EcoJustice, Ecopedagogy, humane education, and Critical Animal Studies
  • Multispecies Justice-oriented education in formal/non-traditional educational settings
  • Arts-based research around more-than-human relations
  • Indigenous and Decolonizing perspectives in education
  • Community Activism, Prefigurative Politics, and Earth Democracy in practice
  • Short Film and/or book reviews of 800-1200 words (please contact the editors with your ideas and/or for a list of suggested texts)

Abstract Requirements

  • Include author information, title and an abstract of 250 words max
  • Include 3-5 keywords
  • Email ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS to: bedwardsschuth@augusta.edu by August 15th, 2026

Manuscript Submission Requirements (after abstract acceptance)

  • Manuscripts should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words (including references), APA 7th
  • Include an abstract of 250 words max
  • Include 3-5 keywords
  • All submissions will undergo blind peer-review
  • Submissions due November 15, 2026 (via Critical Education submission portal)

Timeline

  • August 15, 2026 – Abstract proposals due (250 words maximum)
  • September 15, 2026 – Authors will be notified of abstract acceptance by
  • November 15, 2026 – Full manuscript submissions due
  • December 15, 2026 – First round of peer review feedback to authors
  • January 31, 2026 – Revised manuscripts due
  • 2027 – Publication of special issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Brandon Edwards-Schuth
Assistant Professor of Educational Research
Augusta University
Email: bedwardsschuth@augusta.edu

Dr. Maria Helena Saari
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Oulu
Finland
Email: maria.saari@oulu.fi

For inquiries about the special issue, please contact: bedwardsschuth@augusta.edu

 

References

Basso, K. H. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. University of New Mexico Press.

Corman, L., & Vandrovcová, T. (2014). Radical humility: Toward a more holistic critical animal studies pedagogy. Counterpoints, 448, 135–157.

Edwards-Schuth, B. & Lupinacci, J. (2021) Pedagogies of Diverse Bioregions: An Ecotistical Move from Ego to Eco. Europe Now, 45. https://www.europenowjournal.org/issue-45-november-2021/

Homer-Dixon, T., Renn, O., Rockström, J., Donges, J., & Janzwood, S. (2022). A call for an international research program on the risk of a global polycrisis (Version 2.0). Cascade Institute. https://cascadeinstitute.org/technical-paper/a-call-for-an-international-research-program-on-the-risk-of-a-global-polycrisi

Homer-Dixon, T., & Rockström, J. (2022, November 13). What happens when a cascade of crises occur? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/opinion/coronavirus-ukraine-climate-inflation.html

Lupinacci, J., Edwards-Schuth, B., Happel-Parkins, A., & Turner, R. (2023) Ecocritical pedagogies and curriculum. In P. Davies, E. Clinton, and G. Carolyn (Eds.) International encyclopedia of education, 4th edition, Volume 2 (pp. 202-209). Elsevier. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630- 5.08045-3. ISBN: 9780128186305

Lupinacci, J., Happel-Parkins, A., & Turner, R. (2018). Ecocritical scholarship toward social justice and sustainability in teacher education. Issues in Teacher Education, 27(2), 3-16.

Martusewicz, R. A., Edmundson, J., & Lupinacci, J. (2021). EcoJustice education: Toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable communities (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Nocella II, A. J., Sorenson, J., Socha, K., & Matsuoka, A. (2014). Defining critical animal studies: An intersectional social justice approach for liberation. Peter Lang Verlag. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1230-0

Pedersen, H. (2025). Post-anthropocentric pedagogies: purposes, practices, and insights for higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(2), 344–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2222087

Raekstad, P., & Gradin, S. (2020). Prefigurative politics: Building tomorrow today. Polity Press.

Rautio, P., Tammi, T., & Hohti, R. (2021). Children after the animal turn. In N. J. Yelland, L. Peters, & N. Fairchild (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of global childhoods (pp. 341–352). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529757194

Saari, M.H. (2025) A Multispecies Justice Approach to Climate Change Education. in L. Griffin, L. Ropartz, S. Bannister & A. Merrick (Eds.) Climate Change Education Research Collection. International Baccalaureate Organization. Commissioned Report.

Shiva, Vandana. (2015). Earth democracy: Justice, sustainability, and peace. North Atlantic Books.

Tammi, T., Hohti, R., Rautio, P. (2023). From child–animal relations to multispecies assemblages and other-than-human childhoods. Barn, 41(2–3), 140–156. https://doi.org/10.23865/barn.v41.5475

Tuck, E., McKenzie, M., & McCoy, K. (2014). Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.877708

New issue of Critical Education: Palestinian Liberation in Education: Solidarities and Activism for a Free Palestine + more

This issue of Critical Education includes the first of a two-part special section on Palestinian Liberation in Education: Solidarities and Activism for a Free Palestine, edited by H. Shatara.

In addition, there are articles that analyze LGBTQIA+ censorship debates in a public library; imagine critical pedagogies and ecological humanities from Global South perspectives; examine critical pedagogy in Liberian higher education; explore transformations of beliefs and identities of undergraduate students; present an abolitionist framework for study of police in schools; and an investigation of U.S. public loan forgiveness program.
—————————–
Articles
  • Discursive Placemaking Practices and White Christian Nationalism: Analyzing LGBTQIA+ Censorship Debates in a Southern, Small Town Library — Ryan Schey, Rebekah J. Adams
  • Imagining Critical Pedagogies and Ecological Humanities in the Pluriverse: Nomadic, Decolonial and Life-centered Environmental Education as a South-complex Environmental-desiring Machine — Jorge Garcia-Arias, Helen Moura Pessoa Brandão, Natalia Sánchez Gómez
  • Envisioning Critical Pedagogy in Liberian Higher Education: A Conceptual Framework for Civic and Democratic Engagement — Gabriel M. Kennedy
  • “A Game We All Play”: Identity, Epistemology, and Transformation in Undergraduate Psychology Students — James Y. Yuan, Romin W. Tafarodi

 

  • Research as Copaganda?: An Abolitionist Framework for the Study of Police in Schools — Hannah Baggett, Carey Andrzejewski, LaKendrick Richardson, Brucie Porter
  • The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and the Purpose of Higher Education — Saralyn McKinnon-Crowley, Sarah Harris
———————-
Palestinian Liberation in Education: Solidarities and Activism for a Free Palestine
  • Palestinian Liberation in Education: Solidarities and Activism for a Free Palestine — H. Shatara
  • Flowers for Palestine: From Holy City to Holy City — Tiffany O. Harris
  • Do Palestinian Lives Matter in Teacher Education? Centering an Anti-Zionist Commitment in (Early Childhood) Teacher Education — Lilly Padía
  • Educating for Unknowable Futures: The United Nation Relief and Works Agency-led Education for Palestinian Refugees in Jordan — Julie Alstadnes Malme
  • Confronting my Palestinianess in Writing Pedagogies: A Critical View from Lebanon — Amany Al-Sayyed
https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/issue/view/182712

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

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

Critical Education 16(1), Feb 2025: With special section on Neoliberal Capitalism and Public Education

New issue of Critical Education published today. Critical Education, 16(1), includes a special section on “Neoliberal Capitalism and Public Education” edited by Lana Parker (U of WIndsor).
 

Contesting Concepts, Imagining New Possibilities: David Graeber, Democracy, and Social Studies Curriculum
Peter M Nelson

 

Applying Critical Race Theory to Enhance the Racial Inclusivity of Teachers in Canada: A Review of the Literature and Facilitative Programming
Lucas Skelton

 

Critical Making Workshops: Sparking Meta-Discussions for Critical Thinking in Vocational Education
Regina Sipos, Alexander Kutschera, Janina Klose

 

Neoliberal Capitalism and Public Education (Lana Parker, Section Editor)

 

A Window into Public Education: Documenting Neoliberal Capitalism’s Harms, Advocating for Alternatives
Lana Parker

 

Critical Geography and Teaching Against Neoliberal Racial Capitalism in New York City Elementary Schools
Debbie Sonu, Karen Zaino, Robert J. Helfenbein

 

The Allure of Professionalism: Teacher Candidate Subjectivity and Resistance in Neoliberal Times
Adam Kaszuba

 

University Bureaucracies as the Death of Play: The 1968 Strax Affair and the Arts of Discombobulation
Harrison Dressler, Noah Pleshet; Daniel Tubb

 

“I Need This Person’s Support to Have a Career”: The Material and Emotional Impacts of Neoliberalism on Trans Collegians’ Classroom Experiences at a Public University
Justin Gutzwa, Robert Marx

Critical Education v15 n4 – Just published

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New issue of Critical Education just published. Critical Education15(4): https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/index

Table of Contents
Designing Curriculum for Critical Consciousness: A White Teacher’s Process
Allarie Coleman

Hope Kitts

Playing Around: Basketball Personhoods as Sites of Dialogue, Education Research, and Epistemic Disobedience
Juan F. Carrillo, Dan Heiman, Noah De Lissovoy

Maiyoua Vang

Lilia Monzo, Elena Marquez

Molly Wiant Cummins

Using Virtual Learning Labs to (Re)Mediate Exclusionary Discipline Practices for Young Children of Color with Disabilities
Saili Kulkarni, Sunyoung Kim, Nicola Holdman