Book Review: Children framing childhoods: Working-class kids’ visions of care

The Activist Academic describes the authors ’ development of an activist pedagogy set in the context of their personal and professional relationships and identities — Colette Cann, a black woman, and Eric DeMeulenaere, a white man. Further, the book offers a critical examination of the inherent con- fl icts of basing a successful academic career on an activist trajectory. The Activist Academic is well-written and organized sequentially over 7 years, making transparent much of the development of these authors as activists and academics. It will provide moral and ideological support for activists laboring in academia. The academy, particularly in social work and education, is widely accepted as a bastion of liberal intellectualism, where the relationship between pedagogy, teaching, and research intersects with anti-oppressive ideals of equity and inclusion. The Activist Academic challenges this notion and suggests that the academy continues to support the values and ideas of dominant society. The institution may tolerate subtle challenges to this status quo, but it neither invites nor rewards scholarship or action intended to dismantle this dominance. Therefore, the activist academic does not get rewarded in typical academic fashion for community activism, scholarship, or research but conversely may fi nd that these pursuits negatively affect their professional trajectory and tenure process.