Reimagining Higher Education Through Design Justice and Inclusive Practices

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to launch this Special Issue of Social Sciences titled “Reimagining Higher Education Through Design Justice and Inclusive Practices”. We aim to explore innovative approaches to higher education that prioritize equity, justice, and inclusivity. The editing team is excited to invite submissions delving into various aspects of higher education, including curriculum development, decolonizing practices, mentoring, tutoring, and beyond, that aim to increase access and participation within academia, including, but not limited to, an increased sense of belonging, persistence, retention, degree attainment, and empowerment. We also encourage submissions that utilize inclusive methods of research and evaluation that break down the status quo of expectations and explore transformative, decolonial, and ancestral ontological and epistemological understandings, such as, but not limited to, autoethnographies, the use of narrative and storytelling, and anti-oppressive, decolonial frameworks.

Invitation to Submit Work

We invite research-based and theoretical articles of all types that contribute to the ongoing conversation around reimagining higher education. We particularly encourage submissions that prioritize historically excluded populations, transformative paradigms that utilize community and participatory-based practices, and inclusive methodologies, such as, but not limited to, autoethnography and narrative and storytelling frameworks. The work published in this Special Issue will provide insights into how higher education can be reimagined to better serve all students, promoting educational justice, especially for those who have historically been excluded.

Topics to be Included and Prioritized

We welcome articles that delve into various aspects of higher education, including but not limited to, the following:

• Curriculum Development: Exploring ways to design curricula that reflect diverse perspectives and promote inclusive learning environments.

• Example project: To explore the impacts of inclusive curricula on students’ sense of belonging and degree attainment.
• Example project: An autoethnographic study on implementing an inclusive learning environment.

• Decolonizing Practices: Investigating methods to challenge and dismantle colonial legacies within educational institutions.

• Example project: To describe the strategies that challenge and dismantle colonial legacies within higher education from the student perspective.
• Example project: A systematic review of decolonial strategies in higher education and their impact on student sense of belonging.

• Mentoring and Tutoring: Examining effective strategies for mentoring and tutoring that support historically excluded populations.

• Example project: To explore the identified needs of first-year higher education students related to college preparedness and cultural integration.

• Community and Participatory-Based Practices: Highlighting initiatives that engage communities and involve participatory approaches in educational setting.

• Example project: Community-based power analysis for increasing access to higher education among low-income youth.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and contributing to the ongoing conversation around reimagining higher education through design justice and inclusive practices. Thank you for your interest and participation in this important endeavor.

Dr. Erin Boyce
Dr. Katrina Little
Dr. Matthew Drake
Dr. Rebecca Cottrell
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.