Decisions to Fight or Retreat: Educator Responses to Contemporary School Policy Battles in Suburban Milwaukee

• In Event: Educators' Responses to Issues Teachers Are Facing Globally

Abstract

How do educators make sense of the culture wars and the “divisive concepts” advocacy in their district and state? And how do they describe their collective and individual responses to this advocacy and related policy changes? Using a critical discourse analysis approach, this study examines how teachers understand and respond to contemporary school policy battles in a suburban Milwaukee school district. This research finds teachers: (1) rely on administrators to insulate professional decision-making; (2) turn to community advocacy when their union stalls; (3) seek employment in more supportive districts; and (4) recognize threats to their work as existing within a conservative push to reshape education. I suggest implications for those teaching and researching in communities where these culture wars occur.

Author

• Rob Timberlake, University of Wisconsin - Madison