Education Week - April 5, 2017 - 12

Survey: National Politics Causing Classroom Divisions
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

a time of division.
President Donald Trump's defeat
last November of Hillary Clinton
capped the most divisive presidential
election in recent memory, and the
first few months of his tenure have
been marked by controversy. In addition, a number of issues have made
their way into the classroom as current events, including: immigration;
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights; and issues related to race,
religion, and gender.
While most teachers said that it's
important to talk about these topics in
the classroom, 42 percent noted that it
was difficult to discuss national politics with students-more so than any
other controversial issue. And while
the vast majority of teachers are at
least moderately confident in their
own ability to have civil conversations with their students, 66 percent
said they have noticed an increase
in uncivil political discourse at their
school since the presidential campaign
began.
About half the teachers said the
number of bullying incidents related
to national politics has increased in
the past year-more so than for any
other topic, although about 30 percent
of teachers pointed to spikes in bullying related to immigration or language
and race and ethnicity.
Alethea Patterson-Jahn, the head
special education teacher at an Albuquerque, N.M., middle school, recalled

Print Ad

seeing a student tell another that
Trump would deport the student's
father.
"I have never heard that before," she
said. "It was kind of a slap in the face."
Many teachers said they feel obligated to make sure all their students-regardless of nationality, race,
ethnicity, or religion-feel safe and secure, and that has made conversations
about politics and other current events
feel necessary.
Those conversations give students
"an outlet and a space to talk about
what's going on," said Candice Simon,
a 6th grade teacher in the Brooklyn
borough of New York City. "[After the
election], we had to have a conversation about feelings. ... I try to make
sure I'm staying calm and reassuring
in these moments."
While 55 percent of teachers said
they have not avoided discussing controversial current events with their
students this school year, another
28 percent did avoid talking about
national politics with their students.
Smaller percentages of teachers have
refrained from discussing politically
charged topics like LGBT issues, race,
and religion.
Twenty-six percent of teachers said
they did not discuss any controversial
events with their students because the
topics are not relevant to the subject
area they teach. That's the philosophy of Robert Williams, a 4th grade
teacher in Delano, Calif., who teaches
mostly Hispanic and Filipino students.
"The only issue we had was right

after the election-students came
to school and they were upset about
what their parents had said. ... They
feared immigration [policies], they
feared the unknown," he said. "I said
we're not going to talk about it, because we're here to deal with reading,
writing, and math."
Talking about controversial subjects
could bring "undue feelings to the
students," Williams added. "I wanted
them to feel safe."

Teachers Are 'Fearful'
Other reasons that teachers chose
for veering away from controversial
topics include: wanting to avoid dissension in the classroom, knowing
that their personal views are not in
line with students' views, and not
knowing how to handle such discussions in class.
"[Teachers are] fearful of teaching
some of the current events for fear
of parental pushback, fear [they'll be
seen as] pushing their political views,
fear of student pushback," said Maureen Costello, the director of Teaching
Tolerance, an education project of the
Southern Poverty Law Center.
Still, she said, it's critical that civil
discourse happens in the classroom.
"If as educators we're not going to
model what it looks like to talk about
politics, ... we're not supporting what
is an essential democratic practice,"
she said.
For the most part, teachers seemed
to agree. Almost 70 percent said it

was important to discuss national
politics with students-a little less
than the 79 percent who said it was
important to discuss race and ethnicity and the 75 percent who think
it's important to discuss immigration
with students.
In interviews, teachers cited the
rise of fake news as a reason for talking about politics in class-they felt a
responsibility to help their students
learn how to critically evaluate what's
on the internet.
DiAnne Bredvick, a social studies teacher in Texas who works at
an alternative high school 20 miles
from the U.S.-Mexico border, said
her students have been interested
in Trump's immigration policy, but
often get their news from unreliable
sources, including social media. "A lot
of times what they heard isn't correct
information," Bredvick said. "My role
is to provide them with the facts as
we know them."
While most educators said they
could discuss controversial issues
with their students in a civil manner,
only 44 percent said their training
adequately prepared them to handle
those discussions, and 23 percent said
they have received no such training.
Most teachers said they have not received guidance from administrators
on how to talk about such issues with
their students.
When asked where they did receive
guidance or ideas, just 40 percent cited
their fellow teachers, administrators,
and other staff members; 27 percent

Selecting and Sequencing
Student Solutions for
Productive Math Discourse
Research shows there are best
practices to create a classroom
environment that fosters rich
classroom discussions. Mathematics
expert Gladis Kersaint will share
strategies that all educators can
use to promote mathematical
discourse in their classrooms.

free webinar:
monday, april 17, 2017
2 to 3 p.m. Et
www.edweek.org/go/webinar/
StudentSolutions

12 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 5, 2017 | www.edweek.org

guest
* Gladis KeRsaint, Ph.d., dean,
neag school of education,
University of Connecticut
moderator
* danielle CURRan, product
director, Ready Mathematics

Content provided by

said news articles; 17 percent cited
curriculum from social-justice organizations like Teaching Tolerance; and
13 percent said they drew from their
own experience and common sense.
While teachers generally try to stay
politically neutral in front of their
students, 18 percent said they have
become more likely to share their
political views with their students in
the past year.
Jolene Vincent, an 8th grade social
studies teacher in Phoenix, said she
was open about her political beliefs
with her students during the election. She had originally been a Trump
supporter, but voted for Clinton after
disavowing Trump's more-inflammatory comments. "It's great to debate,
because a lot of times, I'm like, 'Prove
me wrong,' " she said. "We talk about
how they're approaching adulthood,
and it's important [for them] to know
what their political views are."
The majority of survey respondents-61 percent-voted for Clinton,
while 17 percent voted for Trump, 12
percent voted for a third-party candidate, and 10 percent did not vote at
all. While the survey does not statistically mirror the nation's teachers, the
respondents' hail from geographically
and demographically diverse school
districts.
The survey found that Clinton voters were slightly less comfortable
than Trump voters discussing the
election results with students who
hold differing views. Overall, 22 percent of teachers said they were uncomfortable discussing the election
results with students who supported
the other candidate.

http://www.edweek.org/go/webinars http://www.edweek.org/go/webinar/StudentSolutions http://www.edweek.org/go/webinar/StudentSolutions http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - April 5, 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - April 5, 2017