The Southern Teacher Narrative: Religion, Education Policy, and Oppositional Parents

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Banned, Restricted, and Contested: The Politics of Censorship in Education

Abstract

From the new 10 Commandments bills to trans bathroom laws, teachers have found themselves on the front lines of religious culture wars. Through a Critical Thematic Discourse Analysis of 5 semi-structured interviews with middle/high school English educators in the American South and WPR analysis of Southern legislative sessions, I explored the ways in which opposition towards and control of teachers in Southern schools, both locally and on a state level, can be manifested through parent opposition and explicitly framed in a religious context, often professing to promote ‘Christian values’ in schools in order to ‘protect children’ and support a ‘shared [Christian] heritage.’ This presupposes a manufactured problem that children receive ‘harmful’ or immoral material at school.

Author

• Alexa Muse, University of Oxford