A Critical Gender Analysis of State Educational Agency Policy During COVID-19

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers as Education Change Makers: What Empowers and/or Enervates Them (Table 8)

Abstract

The feminization of the K-12 teaching force in the U.S. has long been correlated with the lower status of the teaching profession. One outgrowth of the largely female population of teachers has been the lack of teacher representation in positions of power within the education sector, including in educational policymaking. Applying critical and feminist theory to teacher response survey data and state educational agency policy memos, this study examines the role gender played in the enactment and the perception of state educational agency policy during COVID-19. Findings point to the tight control of teachers’ work, a disempowerment of teachers’ voices, and the dominance of economic rationales driving school policy. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Author

• Erin Nerlino, Clark University