In Pursuit of Care, Purpose, and Perspective in Education, Research, and Life

To pursue, in the aftermath of, and in the face of the harsh and, at times, disorienting conditions of the present, is to continue with steadfast and reciprocal care. In writing this, I aspire toward personal and collective reflection on that which has been (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing racial and other forms of discrimination) toward that which can be. Honoring movement, the pursuit of care requires an understanding of failure and the prospects of risk(-taking) as well as the responsibility afforded through and with a sense of care. To tangentially encapsulate the epic and disproportionate fails continuously wrought by educational, social, and political systems in the U.S. during these pandemic years, I move between the self and the systems that be. Offering both a wide view and reflections, I seek to shed light on the ways in which those systems and structures can fuel and foster individual feelings and perceptions of failure. Accounting for the histories of disenfranchisement and neglect perpetrated by these larger systems and structures, I attempt to demonstrate the ways in which individuals and smaller collectives move through perceptions of failure toward possibility.