ABSTRACT
Critical education research is a powerful tool for understanding and transforming educational systems. However, its impact is limited when it remains within the walls of the academy. How do we ensure that critical research is both responsive to and accessible to the communities in whose names it is carried out? How does critical knowledge get into the hands of those able to turn scholarship into action? In this chapter, we challenge the false binary between academia and practice, and the privileging of formal academic knowledge over other forms of knowledge and expertise. In its place, we call for a more participatory approach to public scholarship: one that engages nondominant communities and practitioners as co-learners and co-creators of knowledge, one that moves beyond journal articles to engage in creative and visual forms of communication, and one that allows its agenda to be led by those most impacted by systemic injustice. We root this argument in the work of the Family Leadership Design Collaborative, a national network of scholars, practitioners, and family and community leaders who use solidarity-driven co-design to advance educational justice and community wellbeing. Specifically, we share the experiences of some of the collaborative’s members in Salt Lake City, Utah, where a team made up of families, scholars, organizers, and educators have co-designed comics, videos, reports, and curricula to advance the voice and leadership of culturally and linguistically diverse families in schools.
