3. Compliance Showdown

Who has the power over what actually happens in the classroom? The state? The administration? or the teacher? Hint: It depends. In this episode, Miranda Vega ('22) discusses three  different ways teachers responded to the SB3, the law that regulates the teaching of systemic racism and current events in Texas classrooms.

Transcript

Miranda: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the follow up anti CRT in Texas classrooms. My name is Miranda Vega. Being a teacher is hard work. The news of this year has put the spotlight on classroom teachers worldwide. We have heard stories of teacher morale being lower than ever. Education, like many things in today's world, has become increasingly polarized. And laws like SB three have arguably added an additional layer of restraint and uncertainty. I wanted to understand how teachers are approaching issues of race and current events. So today, I will be telling you real stories from Texas classrooms. I think we can all agree that teachers are the most impacted by these new laws in Texas, yet had the least power in making or changing them. In the last episode, Morgan told us about how teachers are responding to the new anti CRT laws. But what I want to know is, Do teachers even feel that classrooms are appropriate places for discussions of race, current events and identity exploration? Did teachers feel uncomfortable dealing with race and racism even before the law, I set out to find the answers. Throughout our research and interviews conducted with educators from all over Texas, I found a common theme. teachers believe schools are places for students to explore and develop their identities. Teachers want to provide their students with safe spaces to grapple with history and work through hard topics. However, in most cases, teachers are not given the proper resources, training or time to do these things. What we get from this are several different approaches to dealing with race in the classroom. It may be obvious, but not everyone feels equally comfortable addressing race in the classroom. Texas teachers have been tasked with navigating these issues, all while SB three and the anti CRT movement looms overhead. Let's hear some of their stories. While talking to an academic dean, from the San Antonio high school, I collected a story of a hesitant young teacher who stopped a conversation surrounding systemic racism. She said, quote, not that long ago, a teacher came to me after school. And he was like, am I going to get fired for this? And I was like, well, for what? They just read headlines at the beginning of each class, and they talk about it in their English class. They talk about you know, what's happening in the headline. It's always a whole variety of things. And so the conversation moved towards school funding, and a student started talking about it being a racist system. That's where the conversation went. And he freaked out and stopped it. Did I, you know, break the law by allowing them to talk about this. The Academic Dean went on to tell me that there isn't any clarity. She said, it creates a lot of stress and anxiety for teachers, because they don't know what their responsibilities are in the face of these laws. If you recall from our previous episode, Texas law limits conversations on current limits. It also limits conversation on race, in particular, the idea that there is structural racism. In this instance, the structural racism was pointed out by a student in the class. And as soon as that word was uttered, the teacher felt insecure and shut down the classroom conversation out of fear. We can imagine that after this law, there were probably many instances of teachers like this one who felt totally unprepared and insecure. Given the laws. It seems like this teacher has less competence and perhaps less agency in the role as a teacher, especially after the passing of this law. The teacher thought that this discussion would get him fired. His lack of experience teaching, paired with the scarcity of information surrounding SB three, undermined his teacher agency. But this loss of teacher agency was not something that we saw with everyone. Here's another example, an experienced high school educator in North Dallas, who teaches a history English hybrid class had a different approach in the face of these laws. Here's how she handles things in her classroom. She said, and I'm quoting from the interview. I'm also really careful to make sure that I keep it academic. It's hard for people to do that. And I don't know, all teachers can't do that. It's a really fun line to walk. And so I, you know, think that sometimes districts kind of want to err on the side of caution and just say, No, don't talk about that because it could upset someone. Because we do have teachers that maybe aren't able to talk. They can't come at it in an objective way out to try to keep discussions grounded in more logic and facts, rather than personal experience. Usually, because again, it's not always helpful to just go on one person's experience, right? Black or Hispanic. This teacher is more experienced and has more knowledge about the anti CRT laws. Her decision to keep this academic centers and gives power to the curriculum. This ends up making the classroom less of a space for identity development. This teacher approaches lessons and class discussions with caution and steers clear from allowing things to get personal. Rather, she focused on the text and keeping things rooted in academia. This approach enables her to avoid issues of race, identity and current events altogether. Many times teachers will use this as a strategy to avoid discomfort, especially in the face of uncertainty. We can see how this teacher makes intentional decisions to steer clear of personal anecdotes or experiences. The choice to stay focused on keeping discussions academically based, only comes with more agency in her role as a teacher. The next teacher I talked to had a unique and important perspective. She has many years of experience as a social studies teacher. During the sophomore Socratic seminar in a Texas high school, a conversation about the national anthem, brought a heated debate about immigration. A student made the comment that immigrating is a choice that everyone has. This teacher saw this as a teachable moment to question this view of immigration. She pushed back, she said, quote, I blatantly called out the ignorance, it was uncomfortable. But that student came back to me at the end of that year, and told me that he had a change of opinion, after thinking about it. It was difficult. But if he wouldn't have been comfortable enough to engage in that conversation with me, it wouldn't have given him that realization. Now, if that happened for everybody else, no, and it's not going to this teacher had some insights into her role in these issues. She said, conversations about race are going to happen when kids are ready. We can't, you know, deny the importance of planting seeds. You know, they don't all grow at the same time. This teacher used her role as a teacher to intervene in understanding, which reflects confidence in her own sense of agency in the classroom. Like other teachers, in our interviews, she saw the classroom as a place for undoing assumptions. She was not afraid of difficult conversations, by confronting discussions of race headland, they can encourage their students to look deeper into their own identities. Now, going back to the common theme among all these teachers, everybody wants to do their job and serve their students to the best of their ability. And no one wants to get fired for doing just that. Remember that these laws in Texas only took effect in September of 2021. It's been less than a year. And what we're seeing so far, is that the job of the teacher is a lot harder now. Not only do they have to navigate difficult topics and discussions, as they always have. But now, because of SB three, there is an added layer of fear, refrain. And uncertainty. Educators are being put in hard situations with little guidance or understanding of repercussions. And as of right now, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Let's not forget that this chilling effect is exactly what writers and supporters of SB three intended discussing current events, encouraging students to develop their racial identities and analyzing historical and systemic racism is not critical race theory, it never has been. But the anti CRT movement tries to make them one in the same. This raises an interesting question about who yields the power in schools? Is it the students or the teachers? Is it the state or the parents? Using real stories from educators all over Texas, we see how teachers approaches to dealing with rates and current events during this time varies greatly, especially when taking into consideration factors such as their number of years in education, their age, and experiences in the classroom, and even their own personal identity. All three of those teachers had a choice to make in those moments, and each of their choices depended on their degree of agency in their role as a teacher. It was the ability to act purposefully and constructively in their respective classrooms that made each approach so unique. These stories show us a spectrum of compliance or teacher agency. dictates their approach the less agency teachers have, the more likely they are to fully comply with the law. The more agency teachers have, the more likely they are to resist the law. So what does this mean moving forward? Teachers need a strong sense of who they are in the classroom. No matter how I decided to approach these issues, there's always room to grow, learn and change. My hope is that these stories and spectrum of complaints will provide much needed insight into the perspective of teachers currently navigating their way around these issues of race and current events in Texas classrooms. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of The fallout anti CRT in Texas classrooms.