A critical mixtape for the movement: reflecting on creative and critical youth practices in research

Abstract

We, the four co-editors, write the introduction for this special issue from our respective locales and positionalities while being flooded with images and accounts of injustice. The present moment is marked by a desire for radical change, a belief in new possibilities for the world, and an overwhelming sense of urgency. Things have to move. We consider this volume a critical mix-tape created by young people, artists and scholars during this moment of possibilities as evidence of how this urgency drives conceptual and methodological innovations to advance notions of equity, liberation, hope, healing, transformation, and justice. Each of the manuscripts in this issue contribute unique “songs,” with melodies of uplift, rhythms of resistance, and lyrics of liberation that encourage us to create humanizing spaces through embodied praxis as social justice.

Keywords:

• Art
• Social Justice
• Youth
• Mixtape Movement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

K. P. Goessling

Kristen P. Goessling is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State, Brandywine. She is invested in creating spaces of belonging where people build meaningful relationships in the pursuit of liberatory social change. Kristen uses participatory research as a tool for movement building and leadership development.

D. Wright

Dana E. Wright is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Mills College. Her book, Active Learning: Social Justice Education and Participatory Action Research, examines a youth participatory action research (YPAR) curriculum and pedagogical approach and discusses implications for school transformation and educational policy.

A. C. Wager

Amanda Claudia Wager, PhD is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Community Research in Arts, Culture & Education at Vancouver Island University in British Columbia, Canada. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Wager's community-engaged research, teaching, and scholarship encompasses literacies, languages, and the arts with local youth, families, and communities.

M. Dewhurst

Marit Dewhurst is the Director of Art Education and Associate Professor of Art and Museum Education at The City College of New York. She is the author of Social Justice Art: A framework for activist art pedagogy and Teachers Bridging Difference: Exploring identity through art.