Coming to Police Abolition: Red Button Moments in Teaching

• In Event: Disaster Schooling to Joyous Schooling for BIPOC Students

Abstract

From a young age, through the media and schools, we are socialized to believe in policing as a helpful institution (Author 1, 2024). Abolitionist perspectives, however, teach us that police do not keep us safe and often introduce harm (Hayes & Kaba, 2023; Kaba & Ritchie, 2021; Purnell, 2021). There are long histories of activists who push us to reimagine what communities might look like without police. Teachers and teacher educators must also consider our role in abolition. In this conceptual paper, we argue that understanding the experiences of teacher educators is one step in “growing abolition in teacher education” (Sabati et al., 2022). We trace our abolitionist journeys from teaching in public schools to our roles in teacher education.

Authors

• Hannah Carson Baggett, Auburn University

• Alyssa Hadley Dunn, University of Connecticut

• Crystal G Simmons, University of North Carolina - Wilmington