Introduction: Why "Critical"? The Need for New Ways of Knowing

This special issue of the Review of Higher Education reflects the goals of the ASHE Institutes on Equity and Critical Policy Analysis. These goals included (a) strengthening the research capacities of young scholars to study questions of race and equity and (b) expanding research methods and interpretive frameworks to consider these questions from critical perspectives. In their introduction, the editors highlight the origins, review process, and content of this special issue. They also articulate a vision for the ways in which this issue might inform the work of existing and emerging higher education scholars.