Exploring Subversive Resistance to State-Mandated Content Standards Among K–12 Teachers: A Systematic Literature Review

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Subversion, Emancipation, and the Heart: Resistance in Curriculum and Pedagogy (Table 31)

Abstract

In this study, I drew on concepts from post-structuralism to examine what scholarly literature shows about how teachers take up, reject, or re-form the subject positions created by the policy of state-mandated content standards. Using the SALSA methodology (Booth, Sutton, & Papaioannou, 2016), I completed a systematic literature review of one educational database to answer the research question: What does scholarly literature indicate about how and why K-12 teachers resist state-mandated content standards? Findings showed a general lack of empirical articles including teacher voices, a conflation of standards with other neoliberal reforms, and different conceptualizations of how standards impact teacher agency. I end with what implications this has for how researchers discuss standards and point to directions for future research.

Author

• Zander Nowell, University of Colorado - Boulder