Union Teachers of Color’s Interpretations of the Silencing of Diversity Discourse in Florida: An Intersectional Qualitative

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher's Work in Contentious Times: Pedagogy and Teachers' Experiences

Abstract

This intersectional qualitative study seeks to unpack how public-school teachers of color in South Florida make sense of efforts to silence Florida educators and prohibit teaching “that individuals share responsibility for others' past actions by virtue of their race, sex or national origin.” Drawing on Black feminist theories, (also identified as problematic by Florida policy makers,) this study examines not just diverse identities, but also how public schooling is implicated in perpetuating multiple and interconnected systems of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, ableism, patriarchy. In this study, education researchers collaborated with the union president of the fourth largest school district in the United States to ask teachers about their interpretations of “anti-Woke” legislations.

Authors

• Brittany A. Aronson, Pennsylvania State University

• Haniyeh Kheirkhah, Pennsylvania State University

• Mildred Boveda, Pennsylvania State University

• Karla Hernández-Mats, American Federation of Teachers