Book Bans and House Education Bills in the Hoosier Heartland

• In Event: Critical Policy Analyses on White Racial Violence and Censorship

Abstract

In a conservative state that recently passed four controversial education bills stifling transgender rights and intellectual freedom while bolstering gun rights and vouchers, Indiana is on the frontlines of conservative school transformation in the US. In this study, I interviewed six English Language Arts teachers and one librarian from the same high school in Indiana as they grappled with the progression of these bills-turned-laws, in-school book challenges, and aggression from conservative parents. Through a thematic discourse analysis, I aimed to explore the ways that these teachers promoted equity in their classrooms and protected their own wellbeing even under threat of personal and professional danger due to conservative guardian opposition.

Author

• Alexa Muse, University of Oxford