Anti-Woke Protest Movement: North American School Boards as Sites of Contestation

• In Event: Politics, Protest and Educators

Proposal

Abstract:
This paper investigates the origins, motivations, and strategies of the anti-woke protest movement, as they related to the work public school boards in North America. It explores the controversies surrounding the anti-woke agenda and its implications for inclusivity, curriculum, and equitable education in public schools. This empirical study compares the experiences of school boards in Canada and the United States that have faced clashes between progressive and reactionary forces in their communities to control the work of school board trustees. Methodologically, this qualitative, inductive study draws upon two complementary ethnographic approaches, netnography and auto-ethnography. The latter is based on my experiences as a public school board trustee. The study is significant in contributing to our understanding of the complex dynamics between the anti-woke agenda and public education in North American schools today.

Introduction:
In recent years, an ideological backlash against progressive social movements, often referred to as the anti-woke agenda, has gained significant attention in North America. Anti-woke advocates are opposed what they perceive as an encroachment of "woke" or progressive ideologies in various societal institutions, including public schools. They are concerned with protecting parental rights and claim to be pro-human. Anti-woke advocates are opposed to a wide range of progressive developments in education including the teaching of Black and Indigenous history, critical race theory, diversity, equity, inclusion, 2SLGBTQ+ rights, and what they call ‘gender ideology’ and gender inclusive sex education. This paper aims to investigate the influence of the anti-woke agenda on public school boards in North America, exploring the movement's origins, objectives, tactics, and its impact on the work of publicly elected school board trustees, and their educational policies and practices.

Objectives:
1.To examine the historical context and development of the anti-woke protest movement as it relates to public education.
2.To investigate strategies employed by the anti-woke advocates in influencing the work of public school boards.
3.To assess the impact of anti-woke advocates on the work of public school board trustees including school board policies and practices.
4.To compare the experiences of school board trustees in the United States and Canada facing political battles between anti-woke and progressive forces in their communities.

Methodology:
Two related qualitative, interpretive research methodologies, both ethnographic in nature, are used for this study. The first is netnography, a form of ethnography, whereby the data is located on the Internet. Netnography seeks to “understand the cultural experiences that encompass and are reflected within the traces, practices, networks and systems of social media” (Kozinets, 2020, p. 14). Netnography is complemented by auto-ethnography, an autobiographical genre of academic writing that draws on and analyzes the lived experience of the researcher and connects their insights to self-identity, values, and wider cultural, political, and social meanings and issues (Poulos, 2021).

In terms of data sources, the netnographic research methods deployed include analyses of social media texts such as Tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos focusing on terms such as anti-woke, school board/district, pro-parent/pro-human, gender ideology, and indoctrination. The data sources for the auto-ethnography included my journals and blogs when I successfully ran to serve as a school board trustee in the fall of 2022, and subsequent emails, publicly available school board information, as well as relevant online newspaper articles. Examining and analyzing this data allowed me, the researcher, to understand the social world as a cultural matter similar to the work of a traditional ethnographer.

Finally, this is also a comparative study that examined cases of contestation between conservative and progressive forces within public school boards in Canada and the United States. The study focuses on school boards within the US states of Florida, Tennessee, and Vermont, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. These are cases of specific school districts or regions that have experienced clashes between the anti-woke movement and school boards.

All the author’s research has taken place through a critical lens, but in this study, they utilized an inductive approach aimed at theoretical development. Consequently, the research design followed these stages:
1)Review of existing literature on the anti-woke movement
2)Data collection
3)Data analysis – seeking patterns and themes
4)Development of conclusions leading to theory development

Findings:
Initial findings from analysis of the data reveal the following:
•the anti-woke movement has gained momentum within North America due to concerns about perceived ideological biases in education and a desire for a more traditional approach to schooling
•anti-woke advocates have influenced public school boards in the US by advocating for changes in curriculum content, textbook selection, teaching methodologies, and the removal of BLM and Pride Flags
•compared to the U.S., anti-woke advocates have influenced the work of public school boards in Canada to a lesser degree with a greater focus on issues concerning gender rather than race
•battles between conservative anti-woke and progressive forces have polarized the work of public school boards and threatened progressive developments that have been implemented in public education over the past 50 years

Conclusion:
This paper on the influence of the anti-woke movement on public school boards in North America aims to shed light on an important and contentious topic, which aligns with the theme of the CIES conference: The Power of Protest. While we know that protest allows marginalized peoples to effect positive change through collective action, we know less about how populist, conservative groups have also mobilized themselves through protest. Anti-woke advocates position themselves as a resistance movement (Harriot, 2022); and they use tools of organized protest to push back the progressive work of public school boards. This protest movement has transformed the work of many school boards into battlegrounds through their partisan politics. By examining the origins, strategies, and impact of the anti-woke movement, as well as the associated controversies, this study contributes to our understanding of the evolving and contested dynamics within public education. The findings of this research will provide insights for school board trustees as policymakers and other relevant educational stakeholders concerned with promoting inclusivity, academic freedom, and equitable education in North American public schools.

Author

• Marianne Larsen, Western University, Faculty of Education