Over a quarter of U.S. teachers say they’re being told by school officials to limit classroom discussions on race, racism, and bias, a new survey has revealed.
On Wednesday (August 10), Rand Corp, a nonpartisan think tank, released the findings on classroom limitations after surveying nearly 2,400 K-12 teachers and about 1,500 principals across the nation, per NBC News.
Despite research published earlier this week highlighting the benefits of learning about the historical and political roots of racial inequality, Rand Corp’s data illustrates the growing success of efforts to restrict classroom conversations about race.
One in 4 social studies and English teachers and 1 in 4 principals report that they have been harassed about school policies on race, racism, or bias.
In the more than dozen states that have imposed state-level restrictions on conversations about racism, sexism, and other hot-button issues in the classroom, almost one-third of educators say they’re being told to limit discussions with their students.
“It’s heartbreaking for our youth, who won’t be getting the high-caliber education that they could be getting from a multimedia, multicultural, global era,” professor and activist Tony Diaz said.
Through the survey, teachers noted the struggle of basing their lesson plans on district and statewide critical race theory policies and raised concerns about being barred from including more diverse perspectives in classroom instruction.
54 percent of all educators said they oppose legal restrictions on classroom discussions about racism, sexism, and other controversial topics, according to the data.
The data come on the heels of research published on Monday (August 8) in the “Politics, Groups, and Identities” academic journal, which provided evidence of the effectiveness of teaching about the historical roots of racial inequality.
Researchers overwhelmingly found that “emphasizing the historical and structural roots of contemporary racial inequalities” can reduce “racial resentment” among political groups and has the potential to “push attitudes in a more egalitarian direction, at least at the margins.”
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