Silent Covenants and Structural Barriers: State Standards Committees and the Maintenance of Race-Evasive Social Studies Standards

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Christopher C. Martell, University of Massachusetts Boston; Lauren McArthur Harris, Arizona State University; J'Shon Lee, Arizona State University; Jennifer Chalmers, Boston University; Jami Carmichael, Arizona State University

Version:  View help for Version V2

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Interview Protocol_MartellEtAl.docx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 16.8 KB 06/12/2024 04:44:PM

Project Citation: 

Martell, Christopher C., Harris, Lauren McArthur, Lee, J’Shon, Chalmers, Jennifer, and Carmichael, Jami. Silent Covenants and Structural Barriers: State Standards Committees and the Maintenance of Race-Evasive Social Studies Standards. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-06-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E205401V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary In this qualitative study, researchers used critical race theory to examine the experiences of social studies standards committee members in 18 states and the District of Columbia. They found that while many participants articulated goals of increasing the teaching of race and racism in their state’s social studies standards, at least in part, numerous silent covenants and structural barriers existed to maintain the status quo through race-evasive standards. A smaller group of participants generally avoided advocating for race and racism topics altogether due to their perceived controversial or political status, while others did not mention race or racism as a priority. Recommendations are made for both the policy and practice related to state standards creation, and questions are raised about the ability of social studies standards to foster racially-just social studies curriculum.



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V2 [2024-06-12]

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