Ethnic Studies Mandates: What Could Go Wrong?

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Seven
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Responsive Practices in the Policy Landscape of Curricular Mandates (Table 9)

Abstract

In 2021, California became the first state to mandate Ethnic Studies as a high school graduation requirement, beginning in 2030. Yet while there is cause for celebration at this effort to improve the ways schools, teachers, and students are intentionally preparing for the realities of multiracial democracy, extensive, unresolved questions of implementation exist as California considers how to scale ethnic studies–with fidelity–beyond idiosyncratic classrooms. Based on multi-year, case-study research, this paper explores the challenges educators, schools, and policy makers face while implementing ethnic studies. Specifically, we explore how addressing (1) educators’ other curricular priorities, (2) a need for sustained professional development, and (3) support in the face of student and family resistance, are vital to the implementation of ethnic studies.

Authors

• Michael C. Dominguez, San Diego State University
  Presenting Author

• Suneal H. Kolluri, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author