Learning to Teach Under Fire

As primarily conservative politicians aim to discredit and outlaw curricula centered on discussions of systemic racism, complex historical topics, gender equality, and other related issues, it is especially significant in today’s contemporary context for educators to engage in pedagogical practices that center marginalized students for improved learning and flourishing in pursuit of a multiracial democracy. In this conceptual article, we suggest a set of recommendations to help educators conceptualize and execute their work under censorship laws in what we refer to as politically tense spaces. We recommend unlocking principled resistance, adapting curriculum for critical consciousness, sustaining Black fugitive pedagogical practices, engaging in union and community involvement, and preparing teacher learners for navigating such environments. We argue that educators’ central responsibility to students remains unchanged by educational gag orders. We center the Black teaching model, anchored by Jarvis Givens’ (2021) notion of fugitive pedagogy, highlighting how Black educators and communities sustained teaching practices under slavery, often covertly and at great personal risk. Following emancipation, Black teachers formalized and extended this tradition through the Jim Crow era, continuing to educate despite ongoing threats to their safety and autonomy. We contend that educators can draw from the Black teaching tradition to design lessons within democratic classrooms. This approach helps students understand the past while equipping them to navigate the broader realities that also shape teachers’ work in politically tense spaces.