Untethered, Superficial, and Grossly Problematic: An Analysis of Teachers Pay Teachers' Teach for Justice Collection

• In Event: Teaching for Social Justice: Antiracist Teacher Education in Historically White Institutions

Abstract

In response to racial unrest in summer 2020, the online curriculum marketplace Teachers Pay Teachers pledged to increase social justice resources on the website through a series of grants, culminating in the Teach for Justice collection. This study employed Picower’s (2012) six elements of social justice design to analyze the 20 free elementary-level resources in the Teach for Justice collection and found that the resources were untethered to any clear definitions of social justice or anti-racism, attended to topics of (in)justice superficially, and in many cases were grossly problematic. This study is further evidence of the harmful content found on Teachers Pay Teachers even when materials are allegedly curated and tagged with labels such as social justice.

Authors

• Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Katy Swalwell, Iowa State University

• Amy Updegraff, Iowa State University

• Leslie Winters, Iowa State University

• Delandrea Hall, Georgia Southern University