Examining how to support the next generation of critical scholars seeking to transform systems of education: an evaluative case study

Many students within the field of education in the United States return to doctoral programs in institutions of higher education to pursue areas of critical inquiry to produce ethically responsible research while supporting their desires to change the professional worlds they just left. For many, this requires them to learn how to be critical researchers in a manner that allows their voices to be heard by the audiences to whom they hope to speak while satisfying the requirements of their Western predominantly White institutions of higher learning. To examine some of the challenges doctoral students face while learning to become critical qualitative researchers, I share data from an evaluative case study of educational leadership and policy doctoral students’ development in becoming critical scholars who engage in qualitative case study methodology and whether my instruction assisted them in this process. Interpreting the findings of this study through a decolonial lens illuminates actions researchers and instructors, like me, can take to support the next generation of critical qualitative scholars.