Choosing “Safe”: Political Fear and the Erasure of Current Histories in Preservice Teacher Practice

• In Event: Pedagogies Under Pressure: Navigating Constraint, Fear, and Resistance in Education

Abstract

This proposal investigates how political fear influences preservice teachers' (PSTs) approaches to teaching sensitive and controversial topics (SCI) within a polarized climate. Drawing on a framework of affect as cultural politics (Ahmed, 2015), this qualitative study interviewed and gathered artifacts from nine PSTs preparing to teach in secondary classrooms. The study suggests PSTs’ political fear shape their pedagogical decisions and sense of their own teacher agency. Preliminary findings indicate that PSTs' fears around addressing SCI are impacted by dynamic relationships with peers and students in school as well as beyond the classroom with parents, the community, and sociopolitical trends. Their fears often cause PSTs to frame and avoid current events as SCI, instead focusing on perceived "less political" historical topics.

Authors

• Amanda Man, University of Delaware

• Joy Esboldt, University of Delaware

• Bonnie Lewis, University of Delaware

• Soo Bin Jang, University of Delaware