Using Educational Criticism to Gain Insight into Teacher’s Understanding of, Perceptions about, and Attitudes Towards Divisive Concepts Legislation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Eisner and Contemporary Research

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine teachers’ understanding of “divisive concepts” legislation and its impact on their professional practice. Using Eisner’s Connoisseurship and Criticism model as a framework, researchers asked twenty-two in-service teachers across four states to describe, interpret, and evaluate divisive concepts legislation to better understand the prohibitions placed on them (what they can/cannot teach in the disciplines of Social Sciences and English Language Arts). Researchers also hope to understand if these laws impacted teacher professional decision-making.

Authors

• Todd M Hodgkinson, Drake University

• Caroline Jernigan Conner, Kennesaw State University

• Aubrey Brammar Southall, Aurora University

• Crystal Howell, Randolph College