Endeavoring a Critical and Thoughtful Response During and Beyond COVID-19: Community-Based Justice Work in a Catholic University

Authors

Qianhui Tian, DePaul UniversityFollow
Shanita Bigelow, DePaul UniversityFollow
Thomas Noel Jr., DePaul UniversityFollow
Joseph Gardner, DePaul UniversityFollow
Rebecca Michel, DePaul UniversityFollow

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting quarantines around the globe have required social justice educators to respond to the unprecedented challenges and the needs of the communities they serve more than ever before. This article explores how educators in a Catholic University conducted community-based justice work in response to the challenges of the pandemic by integrating educators’ solidarity with faith and social justice commitments. We introduce the Lift as You Climb (Lift) project as one example of our approach with Catholic value of promoting human rights and common good. We offer reflections on challenges and successes of community-based programming, considerations of issues of equity and access to educational resources, as well as recommendations for educators’ next actions, in order to offer insight into the implementation of community-based justice work during and beyond COVID-19.

DOI

10.15365/joce.2302162020

First Page

205

Last Page

213

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Tian, Q., Bigelow, S., Noel, T., Gardner, J., & Michel, R. (2020). Endeavoring a Critical and Thoughtful Response During and Beyond COVID-19: Community-Based Justice Work in a Catholic University. Journal of Catholic Education. https://doi.org/10.15365/joce.2302162020