Being a Knower in the Moms for Liberty Podcast

• In Event: Social Issues and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Political contestation around shared reality is consequential for education. We use critical learning sciences perspectives and methods from video-based interaction and discourse analysis to analyze an episode of “The Joyful Warriors Podcast” from the far-right education movement organization Moms for Liberty. Focusing on onto-epistemology, emotion, and ideology in social interaction, we demonstrate how the podcast participants construct an epistemic divide between right-wing moms (with privileged epistemic access to their children) and an expanding conspiracy of medical and educational experts. By the end of the episode, the epistemic distrust expands to include trans children themselves. The study contributes to learning sciences research by demonstrating how interaction processes can lead to support for extreme hierarchy and dehumanization.

Authors

• Tanner Vea, University of Washington

• June Jackson, University of Washington

• Audrey Harris, University of Washington