“We’re All Going to Walk into the Fray Together”: Teaching Critically in the Wake of Divisive Concepts Legislation

Purpose: Through the lenses of deprofessionalization, demoralization, and remoralization, this study investigates the experiences of five educators with commitments to social justice education as they navigate teaching in an affluent, rural, and overwhelmingly white community in New Hampshire—a state that at the time of data collection had recently enacted a law prohibiting the teaching of “divisive concepts.” We respond to the following research questions: How do social justice educators in one predominantly white school district describe their work in the context of the recent passage of divisive concepts legislation? How does legislation prohibiting the teaching of divisive concepts shape educators’ commitments to social justice education? Research Methods: We drew on ethnographic methods including semistructured interviews, observations, and documents referenced by participants in one predominately white school district. Analysis followed constructivist grounded theory guidelines to examine data inductively and used several strategies to bolster trustworthiness. Findings: Data indicate that divisive concepts legislation threatened educators’ personal lives and professional integrity and inhibited their voice and pedagogy. Despite this, the educators found agentic pathways through professional learning, collegial and leadership support, and persistence in critical teaching. Implications: Buffering against attacks on social justice education requires leaning on and marshaling backup from local actors who can help push back on censorship attempts to eliminate teacher agency. Future studies may want to explore this phenomenon at a larger scale and draw on observations of how teaching practices may have changed because of divisive concepts legislation.