Document Type
Brief
Publication Date
11-2023
Publisher
National Education Policy Center
Language
en-US
Abstract
“Discriminatory censorship laws” regulate classroom conversations about racism, gender identity, and other topics targeted in the backlash against efforts toward inclusive classrooms and curricula. This policy brief examines the proliferation of these laws and their impact on K-12 schools, including the creation of hostile learning environments that expose students and educators to a heightened threat of race- and sex-based harassment and to formal sanctions and social ostracization. The laws also foster a climate of fear and anxiety among educators, effectively coercing them to shun critical inquiry and thought on targeted topics and more generally. The result is a curriculum that subtracts comprehensive, culturally attentive content and adds whitewashed and heteronormative narratives of American history and culture. The brief highlights the need for laws, policies, and practices that promote inclusive learning environments that encourage critical thinking, and offers recommendations to constructively counter discriminatory censorship.
Recommended Citation
Jonathan Feingold & Joshua Weishart,
How Discriminatory Censorship Laws Imperil Public Education
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3914
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Education Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons
