In this article, the authors describe critical co-constructed autoethnography as a methodology steeped in critical theory, critical pedagogy and critical race theory. It provides a way for collaborating activist researchers to reflect on the tempo, uncertainty, and complexity of research relationships that cross boundaries into more personal spaces such as friendships. Further, critical co-constructed authoethnography creates spaces for collaborating researchers to work across differences.

White teacher savior films (WTSFs) depict the teaching profession as one for which conventional credentialing is unnecessary. White teachers with little training and experience perform miracles in urban classrooms where trained, experienced teachers have failed. This same narrative is echoed in alternative credential programs such as Teach For America (TFA). This article compares the WTSF and TFA narratives with the educational research and finds inconsistencies that unravel the myth. The author suggests that the WTSF and TFA narratives serve instead as public pedagogy, teaching movie-goers that urban schools need only well-meaning, less expensive, underqualified and inexperienced White teachers despite the research showing otherwise.

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In the field of education, critical theorists, critical pedagogues, and critical race theorists call for academics to engage in activist academic work to promote the social transformation of the material conditions created by racism and other forms of oppression. This article is a response to this call for academics, particularly those in the field of education, to confront inequities resulting from intersecting oppressions such as heterosexism, racism, and sexism as well as to take action to create a more socially just world. Using two years of fieldnotes and interactive interviews, we present a critical co-constructed autoethnography that reviews literature on activist research, offers a critical analysis of our own efforts at activist research and provides a framework for reflecting on the impact of different types of activist research, particularly in the field of education.

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