#USvsHate: The Power and Pitfalls of Supporting K–14 Educators and Students in "Anti-Hate" Action Today

• In Event: Interrogating and Responding to Oppression in Teacher and Teacher Education

Abstract

Given the documented spike in “hate” incidents on school campuses since the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, teachers are seeking resources and supports for publicly refusing school-based “hate,” and engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts with colleagues and students. This paper shares the “power and pitfalls” of supporting educators and youth to “speak out” against hate—specifically through the frame of “anti-hate” action—via a participatory design research project called “#USvsHate.” #USvsHate is an educator-and-youth-led public messaging effort seeking to unite communities, counter bigotry in schools, and create safe and welcoming classrooms. Alongside practitioners who co-designed the project, researchers draw conclusions from a two-year ethnographic study of this initiative to unleash pro-inclusion public messaging in a “Trump era.”

Authors

• Mica Pollock, University of California - San Diego

• Mariko Yoshisato Cavey, Johns Hopkins University