Teaching What but Not Why: Teachers' Perspectives on a State Law Banning Critical Race Theory

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: School Policy and Praxis: Vital Voices, Disparate Viewpoints (Table 13)

Abstract

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has recently been “banned” in k-12 education in several states through state legislation. This paper explores the perspectives of math and science teachers in one such state as they prepare to teach under this ban. Through interviews and group discussion, teachers’ perspectives included an understanding of the law on local and systemic levels, situation of math and science within the context of the law, and evaluating the potential impact of the law on math and science classrooms. Using a framework of CRT, we highlight how this law is perceived by teachers as a way to formalize colorblindness and perpetuate education as a property of whiteness by targeting urban school districts.

Authors

• Katherine Wade-Jaimes, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Rachel Diane Askew, Freed-Hardeman University