Yesterday, as I was racking my brain trying to find the right words to express my sincere gratitude for all that Joe Kincheloe and his work have given me, my epiphany arrived in the form of an email from one of my doctoral students at UMass Boston.  It reads:

when i think the words ph.d., professor, academic, and scholar

then i see older, white, middle-upper middle class, dressed in a blazer or sweater sets in my mind, my imagination.

Over time I have become curious about how some graduate students, who are exposed to various approaches to research, gravitate to critical educational research. At this stage in my teaching I believe that I can guess what students will be most comfortable with quantitative, qualitative, or critical research [It is important we hold on to our illusions].