This book explores the long history of oppression and resistance in adult and higher education, situated in Mississippi. The state serves as a unique site in which intersecting narratives around race, ethnicity, social class, opportunity, democracy, and equity have played out over the past several decades. In this book, the authors highlight the experiences of students and adults in Mississippi who provide both covert, subtle resistance to the dominant, oppressive educational narrative in the state, as well as those who provide active, visible resistance. Using critical pedagogy and critical theory to drive their analysis, the authors highlight the systematic and continuous nature of oppression, and theorize ways forward toward liberation in Mississippi, the South, and the nation.

Story and auto-ethnography are study methods based on decolonizing and liberating research perspectives. Stories, auto-ethnographies, and other qualitative methodologies enable the researcher/educator to be both a research instrument and an object in their study. Stories allow for the examination of personal growth, its effect on practice, and their impact on community. The researcher/educator is able to witness her/his own life as they collaborate with participants. Through the use of story, auto-ethnography, and other qualitative methodologies, researchers/educators can link the history of self within their community/activist work to its present conditions as they map their collective community's future. Ecologies of Engaged Scholarship explores the use of story and auto-ethnography as a tool to know 'self' and 'other' in relationship to capacity building, pedagogical processes, and activist scholarship. It highlights activist-scholarship to better understand the epistemology and landscape of activist research. Contributors to the book self-identify as activist-scholars or scholar-activists, and in their unique chapters they consider the values informing their work, the origins and nature of their work, and how they make meaning of their work. They also consider how family and/or community has been involved, how previous schooling experiences have affected their trajectory, and how particular relationships have worked to influence their philosophical understanding. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Story and auto-ethnography are study methods based on decolonizing and liberating research perspectives. Stories, auto-ethnographies, and other qualitative methodologies enable the researcher/educator to be both a research instrument and an object in their study. Stories allow for the examination of personal growth, its effect on practice, and their impact on community. The researcher/educator is able to witness her/his own life as they collaborate with participants. Through the use of story, auto-ethnography, and other qualitative methodologies, researchers/educators can link the history of self within their community/activist work to its present conditions as they map their collective community's future. Ecologies of Engaged Scholarship explores the use of story and auto-ethnography as a tool to know 'self' and 'other' in relationship to capacity building, pedagogical processes, and activist scholarship. It highlights activist-scholarship to better understand the epistemology and landscape of activist research. Contributors to the book self-identify as activist-scholars or scholar-activists, and in their unique chapters they consider the values informing their work, the origins and nature of their work, and how they make meaning of their work. They also consider how family and/or community has been involved, how previous schooling experiences have affected their trajectory, and how particular relationships have worked to influence their philosophical understanding. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

This textbook presents an integrative approach to thinking about research methods for social justice. In today's education landscape, there is a growing interest in scholar-activism and ways of doing research that advances educational equity. This text provides a foundational overview of important theoretical and philosophical issues specific to this kind of work in Section I. In Section II, readers engage with various ways of thinking about, collecting, and analyzing data, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Finally, in Section III, through case studies and research narratives, readers will learn about real scholars and their work. This book takes a wide-ranging approach to ways that various modalities and practices of research can contribute to an equity mission.