Where Is the Line? Teachers’ Affective Responses to a Conflicted Sociopolitical Climate

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Claming Spaces and Places for Authenticity for Educators of Color (Table 2)

Abstract

Decades of research have promoted the benefit of critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies to student learning (e.g. Freire, 1970; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012). And yet, these pedagogies may feel like they are prohibited by various acts of so-called “divisive concepts” legislation that have been passed around the country (PEN America, 2021) and the recent rise in book bans (Meehan & Friedman, 2023). This study engages with a narrative methodology to consider the affective responses of English language arts (ELA) educators who express a commitment to justice and equity-oriented pedagogies, as they work to enact those pedagogies in the state of Georgia, one of many locales where legislation has been passed that might deter teachers from engaging with these pedagogical goals.

Author

• Jennifer Ervin, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire