Introduction: Activist Scholarship as Community-Centered Research for Social Change

Abstract

This special issue of Research in Educational Policy and Management (REPAM) highlights, amplifies, and centers Activist Scholarship, bringing together impactful academic research with community advocacy and action that advances social justice. Today’s world presents global, national, and local challenges such as climate change, civil unrest, growing economic divides and polarization, and ongoing discrimination that requires more than just observation, critique, or explanation. Now, more than ever, researchers and practitioners need to collaborate and contribute to making a real difference by leading work that is not only informative but also transformative (Gutierrez & Lipman, 2016; Johnson, 2023). Research as activism, also referred to as activist scholarship, is a justice-driven, community-rooted approach and tool that uses critical inquiry to expose inequities, amplify marginalized voices, and mobilize community members from diverse fields and sectors to transform systems toward equity, inclusion, and social change (Abawi et al., 2025; Eizadirad & Trifonas, 2025; Kilinc et al., 2024). Building on conversations which started in the Journal of Culture and Values in Education’s 2024 special issue on the theme of  “Research as Activism,” (Kilinc et al., 2024) this volume further advances and highlights innovative, community-based case studies that tackle systemic inequities to uplift voices of marginalized groups and make educational policies and practices more inclusive,