Finding my critical voice for social justice and passing it on: an essay

Abstract

This introspective critical essay elucidates some of the challenges I encountered in my efforts to persist at various levels of education as a first-generation White student from a low-income background and through multiple intersectionalities, primarily class and gender. My lived experiences and transformation from a near high school dropout to a university professor are detailed with particular attention to how these experiences transformed my thinking about my family from deficit to asset, and how I now use this critical consciousness in my teaching and research. Particular attention is paid to the political, social, and educational factors that influenced my philosophy of social justice.

Keywords:

• Low income
• first-in-the-family college student
• critical consciousness
• deficit
• social justice
• personal essay

Notes

1. I did not take the ACT or SAT in high school. Because I had accumulated a certain threshold of credit hours at the community college, I was allowed to transfer to the university without ACT or SAT scores.

2. I chose to study the educational issues impacting Latinas/os in particular because, at the time, I was working primarily with these groups in community organizations.

3. Note: The reflections of teaching are those from my first faculty appointment at a university in the Deep South.