The Impact of Post-2020 Political Contexts on Representations of Marginalized Identities in State Social Studies Standards

• In Event: The Racial State

Abstract

How have changes in the United States social and political landscape since 2020, including national movements for both more inclusion and more exclusion of historically marginalized groups within history education, affected the representation of diverse identities in state social studies standards? To answer this question, I quantitatively and qualitatively coded the social studies standards from the twenty-five states that revised their standards between 2021 and 2024 for variables related to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. In addition to analyzing these standards in relation to each other, I compare each state’s revision with the standards that were in place before the revision, allowing me to identify the way standards changed after 2020. Based on this analysis, I find that there is both more and less diversity, resulting in an increasing polarization between states whose standards have become more inclusive since 2020 and states whose standards have become less inclusive since 2020. Federalism in the United States and a history of local and state control over education policy, particularly a lack of national history curriculum in this case, facilitates this division and the existence of multiple narratives of American history, developed at the state level, within history education in the United States. As a result, I also argue that the institutional context of state governments, especially in terms of who has power during the process of standards revision, is essential to understanding the impact of politics on social studies education and mandated history content in the United States. By analyzing social studies education policy at the state level and drawing connections between history education and national identity, this research draws on and contributes to literature from political sociology, the sociology of culture, and the sociology of education. It also has important implications for American education policy and state standards themselves.

Author

• Kimberly Hess, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor