{"id":11062,"date":"2024-04-23T11:04:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T19:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/?p=11062"},"modified":"2024-04-23T11:04:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T19:04:50","slug":"call-for-submissions-teachers-work-in-contentious-political-times-workplace-a-journal-for-academic-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/2024\/04\/call-for-submissions-teachers-work-in-contentious-political-times-workplace-a-journal-for-academic-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Submissions: Teachers\u2019 Work in Contentious Political Times \u2014 Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call for Submissions: Teachers\u2019 Work in Contentious Political Times \u2014 Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor<\/p>\n

Deadline for Full-length Submissions: <\/strong>September 30, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

Submission Types: <\/strong>Empirical and theoretical papers; interviews; practitioner field reports, or experiential narratives<\/span><\/p>\n

Review Process: <\/strong>All submissions will be double-blind peer reviewed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guest Editors: <\/strong>Denisha Jones (Defending the Early Years), Brianne Kramer (Southern Utah University), Dana Morrison (West Chester University), Erin Dyke (Oklahoma State University), and Lauren Ware Stark (Universit\u00e9 de Sherbrooke)<\/span><\/p>\n

Philosophical Overview\/Perspective<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While educators have found themselves in a politically contentious profession since the advent of compulsory schooling (Goldstein, 2015), since 2020, they have been caught in a constant onslaught of anti-teacher and anti-education rhetoric, policy, and governance. <\/span>Guided by the blueprint developed from of decades neoliberal reforms which sought to erode the public good via privatization, standardization, and austerity, Covid-era policy responses imagined new ways to silence, demonize, and discredit educators, attempting to keep them out of critical decision-making as they attended to students’ changing needs during shifting realities (Grooms & Childs, 2021; Hodges et al., 2020).<\/span> During this time, educators were made to answer for the “crime” of wanting to adhere to scientifically backed safety protocols that would protect the most vulnerable by stemming the spread of the deadly virus. This oftentimes meant keeping school buildings closed until districts could meaningfully uphold CDC protocols (Hoffman et al, 2021; Zhang et al., 2022).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In many locations throughout the U.S., forced reopenings, expiring financial supports, and politicization of Covid-safety measures were the backdrop for conservative-backed parents\u2019 groups taking over school board meetings, picketing outside schools, and harassing school employees at all levels, demanding a return to in-person learning or the ceasing of safety protocols such as mask-wearing, vaccine mandates, and social distancing (Borter et al., 2022; Cunningham, 2023; Nossel, 2022; Williams, 2022). Recognizing the success of these campaigns in several states and against the backdrop of a nation-wide resurgence in teachers\u2019 labor militancy just prior to the pandemic, rightist political networks and organizations like Moms For Liberty (M4L) and Parents Defending Education (PDE) furthered their Koch- and Walton Family-funded agenda to undermine public education. They manufactured a false narrative that teachers were teaching critical race theory (CRT), making spurious claims about socio-emotional learning, and working to ban books that primarily focused on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters and issues (Anderson-Nathe, 2020; Asbury & Kim, 2020; Hartney & Finger, 2020; Morgan, 2022). Since 2020, there has been legislation of this kind put forth in nearly every state in the U.S., with many passing laws rooted in these inaccurate and careless claims that censor and punish educators for their work (Collie, 2021; Sachs, 2022). In many places, legislators have also targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, programs, and offices in higher education institutions for dissolution (Cuevas, 2022). Students, staff, and faculty in K12 and higher education have experienced repression for speaking out against censorship and genocide (Hernandez et al., 2024). Yes, the teaching profession was in jeopardy prior to 2020, but now many scholars fear the teaching shortage will continue to worsen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the face of reactionary movements and ongoing structural inequalities in education, educators have contributed to a range of struggles to defend public education and counter systems of oppression in schools. These include movements for safety in the Covid-19 pandemic (Maton, 2022; Stark et al., 2024), movements defending the freedom to learn and teach (Giroux, 2024), movements affirming BIPOC (Au, 2021; Curchin et al., 2024; Jones & Hagopian, 2020; Morrison & Porter-Webb, 2019; Ramos & Jani, 2024) and LGBTQIA+ (Shelton et al., 2019) students, and movements for social justice and solidarity unionisms (Charney, Hagopian, & Peterson, 2021; Dyke & Muckian Bates, 2023; Kramer, 2024; Stark, 2023). These movements are both as important and as contested as ever, as educators and the broader public face the threats of rising fascism and, with it, attacks on marginalized communities and those who teach or organize for justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leadership of the American Educational Research Association\u2019s (AERA) Teachers\u2019 Work\/Teacher Unions SIG is seeking submissions for a special issue of <\/span>Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor<\/span><\/em>. The special issue theme \u201cTeachers\u2019 Work in Contentious Political Times\u201d seeks manuscripts focusing on teachers\u2019 work in P-16 education, teacher unions, or community organizing. In this special issue, we seek empirical and theoretical papers, interviews (with current or retired practitioners, teachers who have left the profession, those in teachers unions, and those in grassroots organizations dedicated to equitable public education) that take a critical approach to the current issues educators are facing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Critical research seeks to disrupt and expose the status quo and elevate the voices of marginalized and oppressed people through the research process. We are interested in manuscripts that analyze and conceptualize teachers\u2019 work in these current heightened political times. Below are a few suggested topics to include in this volume, but it is by no means exhaustive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n