16.038 - Shifting Policy Approaches to "Safe" Schooling: Preparing Preservice Teachers to Understand and Address Systemic Marginalizations

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Recent policy approaches to “safe” schooling for diverse student populations have been shaped by “bullying” discourses and the perception of schools predominantly serving students of color as fraught with danger. Responses have lead to an increase in anti-bullying laws, investment in zero tolerance policies, and increased policing and punishment in schools with majority Black and Latino students. These policies fixate on individuals and fail to recognize structural heterosexism, racism, sexism, etc. within institutional schooling. The scholars on this panel argue for shifting policy address of safe schools from punitive approaches to investment in a teacher workforce with greater understanding of differences and structural inequalities. This is a new approach to shifting state level policy.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 10: Teaching and Teacher Education Policy and Research

Chair

• Elizabethe Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)

Papers

• Teacher Beliefs About Race and Culture - Edward Fergus, Temple University

• Implementation of New York State's Dignity for All Students Act: Missing the Forest for the Trees - Elizabethe Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)

• Increasing Competence and Overcoming Fear: A Case for LGBTQ-Inclusive Multicultural Education - Melissa J. Smith, University of Central Arkansas

• What Are the Benefits of Diversity Education for Teachers and Teacher Education? - Melissa Schieble, Hunter College - CUNY

Discussant

• George Theoharis, Syracuse University