Is the FAIR Act Fair? California's LGBT Curriculum Inclusion Law as Social Justice Policy

• In Event: Roundtable Session 53
  In Roundtable Session: Political Organizing and In/Ex-clusions

Abstract

Preceded by the many suicides in the LGBT youth community, The FAIR Education Act became law in 2012. The purpose of this law was to mandate the inclusion of LGBT history into the K-12 curriculum of California public schools with the intent of creating safer schools for LGBT youth.
Using a mixed methods approach, implementation was explored in a sampling of California high schools using Banks’ (1990) implementation model, House’s (1998) policy framework and the lens of Sociotransformative Constructivism. This study strongly suggested that while much of the responsibility for implementing lay with teachers, leadership would need to play a key role if this policy was to create the social change intended.

Author

• Sylvia Lorraine Escobar, California State University - Sacramento