Stories of Resistance: Poetic Insights from BIPOC Women Teacher Educators Confronting Anti-DEI Legislation in Florida

• In Event: Teacher Educators of Color Under Attack

Abstract

Amid state and federal intimidation efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives across P-12 schools and institutions higher education, this study explores how five BIPOC women teacher educators engage in and embody resistance in advancing equity-centered teacher preparation in Florida public universities. Employing a thematic analysis across five individual interviews and using found poetry for data representation, we explore why and how BIPOC women teacher educators sustain equity-centered research and pedagogy in oppressive contexts across the state. Their voices reflect unity around sustained personal and professional commitments to equity-centered work but reveal nuanced resistance strategies. In a heightened political climate of fear and far-right extremism, these stories of resistance further underscore and affirm the urgency of storytelling as advocacy and survival.

Authors

• Elyse Hambacher, University of Florida

• Jalea Turner, University of Florida

• Emilie Mitescu Reagan, Claremont Graduate University