Performing Critical Work - The Challenges of Emancipatory Scholarship in the Academic Marketplace

Oct 15, 2026

Critical scholarship in the social sciences is often framed as an activity outside universities, yet higher education research frequently takes place inside the academy, where confronting dominant power structures can threaten academic careers. The work asks how critical researchers can enact and perform critical inquiry when the academy itself is the research focus. It scripts a dramaturgical relationship with critical theories to test their meaning and to examine potentials and limits of approaches that may move beyond critical paradigms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Characters

Act I

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| Performing Critical Work: The Challenges of Emancipatory Scholarship in the Academic Marketplace | | --- | --- | Jason C. Garvey (Jay), University of Vermont Jeni Hart, University of Missouri Garrett D. Hoffman, University of Minnesota Susan V. Iverson, Manhattanville College Amy Scott Metcalfe, University of British Columbia Tania D. Mitchell, University of Minnesota Jonathan T. Pryor, University of Missouri Christin L. Seher, The University of Akron1 Abstract: Critical scholarship in the social sciences usually focuses on the social sphere outside of the academy. However, for higher education researchers, critical research is often undertaken within andfor the academy, which in turn may endanger one’s career if the dominant power structures are threatened. How might we enact and perform critical research within the academy when the academy itself is our focus? In this piece, we script our dramaturgical relationship with critical theories, to question the meaning of these paradigms in our own work and in our field (of education) as well as to explore the potentials of and limits to the use of critical theories and paradigms that may move beyond critical. Keywords: critical theory, praxis, performance ethnography Characters: We are eight scholars ranging from doctoral students to assistant, associate, and full professors of higher education. We come from a variety of epistemological and methodological worldviews, but the common threads that undergird our current work are the desires to advance theory, disrupt existing power dynamics, and find ways to free ourselves from the often oppressive and constraining spaces we occupy as academics. Act I Setting: Actors are on their respective campuses waiting tojoin a conference call. (A dial tone crescendos as the lights come up. A chorus of key 1. This manuscript represents a truly collaborative effort—as such, authors are listed in alphabetical order by lastname rather than by level of contribution. Critical Questions in Education (Special Issue) 8:2 Spring 2017 139 tones is heard as the actors dial the conference line. The phone beeps and the call begins.) JONATHAN Is everybody with us? (The phone beeps again.) CHRISTIN Hi, all. This is Christin. Sorry for the delay, technology was acting up. JONATHAN Can everybody hear ok? (A series of yeses floods the line. There’s a brief pause.) GARRETT Great! Let’s begin. So, how will we approach our conference session? In our proposal we stated that our aim in this symposium is to have a dialogue about how critical scholars do critical work. Critical theory necessarily includes an element of liberatory practice, however should not bethought of as a monolithic canon under which all revolutionary or change-based research is situated.2 We all agree that we are consumed in a world that seeks prescriptions for how to create justice and our goal is to more fully understand journeys and processes of critical knowing. Could we start with a question about how we engage in searches for liberatory cracks in the oppressive academy? SUSAN Maybe instead of just telling attendees what I do for research, I could offer a metaphor that I use in my teaching that helps to differentiate what I do from alternative (paradigmatic) approaches. Stemming from an assignment in my doctoral work, in which I was assigned to identify a metaphor to represent different theoretical or paradigmatic frames, I offer the metaphor of chocolate chip cookies. First, imagine those pre-packaged Toll House cookies as positivism. They come in a log and you just slice them up, put them on a tray, and you have uniform Toll House cookies. Or better yet, you can now buy them pre-cut for you on a cardboard tray; the pre-scored dough is ready to break apart and bake. The cookie is standardized, objective, uniform. This does not reflect my approach to research (or to baking, for that matter) . Capital “T” truth was not how I viewed the

FAQs

Why does critical research in higher education often carry career risk?

Because critical research within the academy can threaten dominant power structures that shape academic careers and professional life.

What question guides the piece’s exploration of critical inquiry?

How can critical work be enacted and performed within the academy when the academy itself is the focus of study?

How does the symposium use metaphors to discuss different theoretical approaches?

One scholar uses the metaphor of chocolate chip cookies to contrast standardized, positivist frames with approaches influenced by critical theory and feminism, highlighting how taken-for-granted assumptions become visible.

Oct 15, 2026

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