The Shroud of Stars and Stripes: A Systematic Review of Higher Educational “Divisive Concepts” Policy Research Trends in the United States of America from 2020 to 2023

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Examining State and National Policy Change: National and International Perspectives (Table 16)

Abstract

As Americans continue to brave a storm of political division that rumbles toward the precipice of the 2024 Presidential election, the future of public higher education awaits its fate. In 2020, former president Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13950 into law, incepting the term “divisive concepts” into the American lexicon, inspiring a deluge of legislative activities across the nation’s conservative-led states. This systematic review examines the higher educational policy research trends from 2020-2023, guided by a Narrative Policy Framework, in order to deduce where emerging research is headed and what it is neglecting.

Author

• Cameron Wayne Molidor, University of Tennessee