While the audience of this statement is for those in the US, it has usefulness in Canadian and international contexts, at the very least to understand the current political situation in the US. As is apparent from news reports and others outlets, the US political situation is in upheaval, with the outcome of the US national election in November in doubt. The ramification of an authoritarian Republican presidency will be dire for marginalized communities, immigrants, and people of colour, the knock-on effect of which will be wide-ranging. As a community, we need to stand against the rise of authoritarianism at all levels.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is the parent organization of the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA). Here is the statement as a PDF.
– Editor
September 12, 2024
Teachers, teacher educators, and students are trying to make sense of many complex topics throughout the world and in the United States (López & Sleeter, 2022). We define complex topics as those that surface multiple and sometimes conflicting perspectives and prejudices and that are connected to people’s identities and lived experiences. Concurrently, “divisive concepts” legislation, which seeks to restrict teaching about topics like race, gender, and sexuality, for example, has proliferated across the United States, creating confusion and challenges for students, teachers, and teacher educators who want to include discussion of complex topics in their classrooms (Ervin & Gannon, 2024; PEN America, 2023; Schoorman & Gatens, 2024; Woo et al., 2023). For example, legislation has been put in place that both distorts and eliminates the accurate teaching of Black history (Hartocollis & Fawcett, 2023). Relatedly, in the 2024 legislative session, there were 500+ anti-LGBTQIA+ bills proposed across the United States, 200 of which targeted students’ and educators’ rights (American Civil Liberties Union, 2024). In March of 2024, NCTE leadership sent a survey to NCTE members to solicit needs for facilitating discussion of complex topics in ELA classrooms. In response, NCTE members emphasized teachers’ responsibility to teach whole histories and full narratives, and they requested support on how to do this well when discussing complex topics. In this survey and beyond, members have requested support in discussing race and racism, political and civil unrest, LGBTQIA+ peoples’ experiences and struggles, the upcoming presidential election, pandemic vaccination policies, reproductive rights, and other current and complex topics.