The political debates that make their way into school buildings have been a great source of stress for educators, confirms a recently published nationally representative survey.
In fact, school leaders are three times more likely than other working adults to view the intrusion of politicized issues — such as mitigating COVID-19 or classroom conversations about race — as a contributing factor. work-related stress. Sixty-one percent of principals and 37 percent of teachers surveyed by the RAND Corporation said they had experienced harassment over these politicized topics, which contributed to burnout, frequent job stress, and symptoms of depression.
The findings, which come from a January and February survey of 2,360 teachers and 1,540 principals, show how educators have landed at the center of political and cultural debates, often with little support or guidance. And there are signs that this claim has had a chilling effect: 1 in 4 teachers have been asked to stay away from conversations about political and social issues in the classroom.
Teachers “have to deal with all these different beliefs of the people around them, whether they’re administrators, their colleagues, the students themselves, or their students’ families,” said Ashley Woo, associate policy researcher. at RAND and an author of the report. “Educators could use additional support on how to handle these difficult conversations and sometimes contentious and sensitive topics.”
While the question of how educators teach about LGBTQ issues — and deal with issues such as gender pronouns, transgender student participation in school sports, and toilets — has become highly politicized in recent months, the RAND survey does not didn’t focus on that. Most of the questions focused on how educators thought about classroom conversations about race and COVID-19 mitigations.
Seventeen states have imposed bans and restrictions on how teachers can discuss racism and sexism, either through legislation or other means, according to an Education Week analysis . (At the time of the survey, these restrictions were in place in 14 states.)
More than half of teachers and principals disagreed with legal limits on classroom conversations about racism, sexism and other contentious issues, while about a fifth of educators supported these. limitations. The others weren’t sure. Social studies teachers – who are tasked with teaching the nation’s complicated history along with race – were much more likely than teachers of other subjects to oppose the restrictions.
And educators of color were more likely to oppose legal restrictions than their white peers — 62% of color principals and 59% of color teachers opposed bans, compared to 51% of white principals and 52% of teachers whites.
The RAND survey found that 60% of teachers and 65% of principals believe in the existence of systemic racism, which was defined in the survey as the notion that racism is built into systems and structures of society rather than present only in interpersonal interactions.
Twenty percent of educators do not believe systemic racism exists. Educators of color, and especially black educators, are more likely to believe in its existence: 87% of black teachers say systemic racism is real, compared to 57% of white teachers.
“This points to an area where we can continue to build the mindset of educators — preparation and professional learning are natural pathways to start doing that,” Woo said.
The RAND survey found that educators who believe systemic racism is real are significantly more likely to oppose legal limits on classroom conversations about race.
Confusion abounds with little guidance
About a quarter of teachers overall said they had been told to limit conversations about political and social issues in class. See the article : Can Zoom Save the United States?. And the data suggests that race-related laws are impacting teaching: 31% of teachers in restricted states have been instructed by their administrator to stay away from such topics, compared to 21% state teachers without restriction. limitations.
Educators said their administrators fear complaints, both from parents and the state. Already, the Oklahoma State Board of Education has downgraded the accreditation of two state school districts for violating a law that restricts classroom conversations about race and racism and prohibits training diversity for teachers.
And around a quarter of principals and 11% of teachers said they had been harassed for being instructed on race, racism and prejudice. Parents or family members of students were the most common source of bullying, defined as experiences of hostility or aggression, according to the RAND survey.
Teachers’ groups have long warned that these laws will lead to a chilling effect, where teachers will censor themselves to stay out of trouble.
Only 14% of teachers said they had “completely sufficient” access to resources, support and guidance to navigate conversations about race, racism and prejudice in their classrooms, and another third said have “sufficient enough” support. In interviews with RAND authors, some teachers said that they also did not receive such training in their preparation programs.
In interviews, teachers spoke about some of the challenges of racial equity professional learning, Woo said. Sometimes there is not enough staff buy-in, or the training seems too simplistic or even insensitive, teachers told RAND researchers. Some teachers were also concerned that the responsibility to play an active role in training was placed on educators of color.
It would be helpful, Woo said, for school leaders to clarify why these conversations are important — that the goal is to make sure everyone feels welcome and included at school.
Even so, the RAND survey showed that principals also received little preparation on how to handle politicized issues. And while nearly three-quarters of principals said they received advice from the state education department or the legislature, they found it more helpful than any other source of advice. Their top colleagues tend to be the most helpful, according to the survey results.
The situation was no clearer in states with legal restrictions on classroom conversations about race: nearly a third of principals in those states said they had not received any guidance from entities at the state to navigate the new policies. And managers in states who received this advice were more likely to say it wasn’t helpful than managers in states without these laws on the books.
COVID-19 measures prompt even more harassment
Harassment regarding COVID-19 mitigation measures, particularly mask requirements, was even more common than harassment regarding policies related to race education. Almost half of principals said they had been harassed about mask requirements for students and staff.
This investigation was carried out at the height of the highly contagious omicron outbreak of the virus. To see also : High-tech teaching: Older educators take more interest in digital as the academic year begins. Since then, most districts have dropped their mask or vaccine requirements, and many places are starting the school year with little or no pandemic restrictions.
Madeline Will is a reporter for Education Week covering the teaching profession.
