National Report of Teachers' Experiences With School Justifications for Book Censorship

ABSTRACT This study shares the findings from a large national survey of 4096 secondary English teachers to better understand their experiences with censors' justifications for book bannings. This study focuses on the 1793 teachers who said that their school, district, or library censored select books. Quantitative data were analyzed using simple logistic regression across school teacher‐reported demographic factors. Thematic analysis was used to analyze teachers' open‐ended responses of justifications for censorship in their schools. Quantitative findings revealed statistical significance that teachers were more likely to experience censorship if their school was suburban or more affluent. The odds of a teacher experiencing censorship increased by 4.8% for each 10% increase in percentage of white students in their schools. Southern teachers were 3.7 times more likely to experience censorship than Northeastern teachers, and teachers within South Atlantic states were five times more likely than New England teachers to experience censorship. Censorship justifications reflected four overarching themes: (1) general categorical critiques, like audience, authorship, and genre (2) content assessed as not age‐appropriate, including drugs, violence, and language; (3) discussions of contentious topics, such as religion, race, and politics; and (4) connections to the body, sex, and sexuality—especially when books included LGBTQIA+ representation. This study revealed that censorship continues to target diverse texts and is driven by specific beliefs and motives. It offers insight to better support students' intellectual freedom.