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Controversial Issues Policies, Power, and Practices: How Educators Navigate Hostile and Divisive Political Climates
Sat, April 11, 3:45 to 5:15pm PDT (3:45 to 5:15pm PDT), JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE, Floor: 4th Floor, Diamond 10Session Type: Symposium
Abstract
Amid escalating political divisiveness, this symposium examines how anti-racist, gender-inclusive educational actors understand and shape educational policies and politics. Through five empirical studies spanning U.S. and Canadian contexts, panelists explore how administrators, educators, and students confront policy mandates, resist epistemic erasure, and mobilize for equity. Topics include the policy erasure and discretionary discrimination against LGBTQ+ youth, antiracist leadership amid neoliberal reforms, and student-led activism under restrictive laws. Aligned with AERA’s 2025 theme of “Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures,” this session interrogates who policy serves and how it excludes, while mapping strategies of resistance, allyship, and resilience. By centering critical frameworks and community-embedded practices, we illustrate how educational actors reimagine schools as sites of belonging, advocacy, hope, and democratic possibility.
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Papers
Policy Ambiguity, Erasure, and Discrimination: Why Gender-Inclusive Educational Leadership is Imperative During Authoritarian Drift - Mollie McQuillan, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Benjamin Lebovitz, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Madelaine Adelman, Arizona State University; Cris Mayo, University of Vermont; Rin Xie, University of Wisconsin - Madison
“It Creates an Expectation That Everybody’s Story is Worth Being Told:” Librarians Countering Censorship Policies - Madelaine Adelman, Arizona State University; Daniel D. Liou, Arizona State University; Courtney Langerud, Arizona State University
What is Taught and What is Learned: Lessons from an Antiracist Middle School - Alexandra J. Freidus, University of Connecticut
“Of the meaning of progress”: School Choice, Black Educators, and White Epistemological Capture during Crisis - Kevin Lawrence Henry, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Understanding Youth of Color’s Political Education and Activism Amid Polarizing Times - Gabriel Rodriguez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign