“It Would Depend on the Vibes”: Dobbs v. Jackson, Abortion, and Teacher Political Disclosure

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating Teacher Disclosure in Uncertain Times: Lessons From the Field (Table 19)

Abstract

In this qualitative paper, I explore how preservice social studies teachers conceptualized teacher political disclosure in relationship to a mixed-reality teaching simulation about abortion jurisprudence and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). Drawing on analyses of field notes, simulation transcriptions, and participant artifacts, this paper contributes to scholarship by juxtaposing the taboo topics of abortion and teacher political disclosure in order to illuminate how preservice teachers make sense of the role their personal opinions play in their teaching. Results illustrate a) a complicated relationship between the particular nature of abortion as a topic and participants’ prior learning about teacher political disclosure and b) how these ideas were both facilitated and complicated through their participation in the teaching simulation.

Author

• Rebecca Cooper Geller, University of Georgia