Opening Classrooms and Shuttering Minds: The Challenges of Learning Environments Amid Hostile Legislation

• In Event: Civic Reasoning and Discourse in a Post-Pandemic World

Abstract

As many schools across the country prepare to resume in-person instruction, parents, media, and educators have begun speculating about what school look like in the post-pandemic world. While most of this concern focuses on the physical space of the classroom and whether students and staff are vaccinated or masked, in some states the climate of the classroom may be altered by legislation substantially reshaping how teachers are supposed to talk about issues of race or gender. Based on an extensive literature review of research on learning environments conducted as part the National Academy of Education project (Author, 2021), this paper will provide commentary on the consequences of such legislation to classroom climates that support open discussion of controversial issues.
In response to widespread protests over police murders of unarmed Black men, many conservative politicians and pundits developed a concern about anti-racist teaching in classrooms and Critical Race Theory (CRT), a theory that, among other elements, highlights structural racial inequalities both historically and in the present day. Conservative state legislatures soon began to pass legislation broadly prohibiting teaching that causes “discomfort” (State of Tennessee, 2021) to students based on their race or gender. Some of these bills carry mechanisms for disciplining teachers or even depriving schools of funding if they are deemed to be teaching CRT or similar ideas. The result is a chilling effect on many teachers’ willingness to engage over issues of race, gender, or other controversial issues. These bills represent a threat to civic reasoning and discourse in the classroom by deliberately shutting out legitimate perspectives on important issues and risk damaging student trust in their teachers and schools.
Over many years of research, one of the most consistent findings in research on education is that classroom climates that allow students to explore, reason about, and reach their own conclusions on controversial issues are connected with students’ civic knowledge and future civic participation (Knowles, et al., 2018; Torney-Purta, et al., 2001). Open classroom climates are characterized, among other features, by the examination of multiple perspectives on controversial issues. Yet legislation such as that discussed here explicitly forbids engaging with certain perspectives. In other words, these state legislatures are inhibiting teachers’ ability to create open classroom climates for discussion.
Teacher-student relationships are also important foundations for learning in the classroom (Marurissen, et al., 2018) and can contribute to conducive climates for civic reasoning and discourse. Anti-CRT and similar legislative actions will codify the centrality of Euro-centric metanarratives in history and stifle discussions about racial issues important to students of color in the classroom. If students of color feel that their voices are not treated equitably in schools, it sets the stage for civic disengagement in the future (Jagers, et al. 2017). Ironically, legislators’ attempts to frame American as a fundamentally just society by excluding critical viewpoints may undermine that perception in students who feel that their views are not heard (Flanagan, et al., 2007).

Authors

• Christopher H. Clark, University of North Dakota

• Carolyn Elizabeth Barber, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Judith V. Torney-Purta, University of Maryland - College Park