Texas and the Folklore of the South: Teaching in the Southwest

• In Event: “The South Has a Gravity”: Teaching Social Studies in the Soul of America

Abstract

Part of the Bible Belt, but not the Deep South; west enough to have a unique identity, but not so far that its Southern brethren expel its membership. Texas sees itself as stronger, more independent South, with size to back it. The lore of the Alamo reveals this thinking and also explains how Texas is imagined. Losing to the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution, the Battle at the Alamo is supposed to highlight a kind of grit unique to Texas and a model for the rest of the country. How many other states have a state history battle that many that live outside of the state have heard of? That is the power of Texas. Yet, the story of the Alamo is rooted in revisionism and myth. The Texas social studies standards play in similar sensational narratives by omitting hard truths. Thus, the standards exemplify a kind of Texas “tradition” - idealized, romantic storytelling - that teachers have had to figure out how to explain.
For Black and Brown social studies teachers in Texas, who have always dealt with these myths, the question becomes how they navigate teaching in this current climate with louder, focused attacks on their complex intersectional identities and histories, and those of their students. Scholars have noted the many ways Black and Brown educators have engaged in subversive acts to create an affirming environment for Students of Color (e.g., Espinoza et al., 2021; Siddle-Walker, 1996, 2018). Givens (2021) used fugitive pedagogy to account for the “physical and intellectual acts of subversion engaged in by black people over the course of their educational strivings” (p. 9-10). Monreal and Tirado’s (2022) work dispels myths about social studies teachers in the “new” Latino South. Utilizing a critical (Cannella et al., 2015), collective case study (Thomas, 2016), the objective of this presentation is to highlight the work of Black and Brown social studies teachers who negotiate restrictive social studies spaces.
Data collected through a survey and initial semi-structured interviews revealed that teachers engage in small moves and bide their time for moments to make bigger moves towards disruption. For example, Chava, a self-identified Queer non-binary, Mexican American trans man, noted that he had “to be careful about what he said and did because he could not bring too much attention to himself for his own safety”. In previous school years, he was more open about his identity, but moving schools and the current climate caused him to be more cautious. Students asked, “Are you a boy or a girl?”, and he would ask, “What do you think, and does it matter?” Students would tell him “No!” but he never confirmed either way. Disruptions to the curriculum worked in much the same way, questions that came from students that would then lead to further inquiry. As social studies educators who live and work in Texas, we seek to illuminate the moves some Black and Brown Texas teachers are making and learn what other agentic moves educators are seeing and doing.

Authors

• Amanda Elizabeth Vickery, University of North Texas

• Neil Shanks, Texas A&M University

• Steven R. Montemayor, Austin Community College