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From book challenges to anti–critical race theory and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning legislation, US English teachers have been on the receiving end of a considerable amount of far-right conservative pushback. This study aims to explore the effects of conservative pushback on individual English teachers and their classroom practice. What pushbacks have individual English teachers faced? How has pushback impacted their teaching? What strategies have they developed for navigating pushback?

This qualitative study explores secondary English teachers’ reported experiences with conservative backlash as reported in 15 semi-structured interviews conducted between May 2022 and August 2023.

Participants reported feeling the pressure of increased levels of pushback, and many reported censoring their book selections to avoid additional public scrutiny. At the same time, they also described a range of strategies they have developed for protecting themselves and their practice, such as codifying curriculum, increasing transparency, formalizing review processes for challenging books and strengthening their resolve to resist.

This study offers a timely window on a pressing problem affecting the daily practice of English teachers in the USA.

This study aims to explore the perceived barriers that a secondary English teacher faced when attempting to discuss racial injustice through young adult literature in Mississippi.

The authors rely on Critical Whiteness Studies and qualitative methods to explore the following research question: What are the barriers that a White ELA teacher perceives when teaching about racial injustice through The Hate U Give?

The authors found that there were several perceived barriers to discussing modern racial injustice in the Mississippi ELA classroom. The participating teacher indicated the following barriers: a lack of racial literacy, fears of discomfort and an urge to avoid politics.

Much has been written about the urgent need for antiracist teaching practices in secondary English classes. This article explores the barriers a white ELA teacher perceived when attempting to discuss modern racial injustice through literature instruction in a white context of the “four pandemics” (Ladson-Billings, 2021).

A war still rages in the United States. This is a war with many different battles – one such battle being against queer teachers and students, as well as teachers and administrators who support queer youth and teachers in their schools. While this battle may look new in the social media landscape that is 2022 (TikTok and YouTube videos and anyone with the slightest thought, even if based on someone else's, a regurgitated idea and old tropes, is posting to social media as if they are saying something new and profound, yet is old tried and filled with hate), it is almost the same old battle where queer and LGBTQ2+ are used interchangeably. Queer folks are the ones being sacrificed to save the nation from spiraling into the abyss of debauchery and chaos of a lost moral compass (Gogarty, 2022; Lorenz, 2022; Montpetit, 2022). If this is the case, and queer people are battling for humanity and existence in schools, understanding teacher burnout from a queer perspective poses incredible challenges. Why would one want to be a teacher, especially a queer person, if we are so often the brunt of the attacks in this war to control society?

The purpose of this study is to assess the awareness and preparedness level of the chief librarians (CLs) of the universities of Punjab and the Federal area in Pakistan concerning censorship. The study also aims to identify the preferred sources the respondents use to update their knowledge about censorship.

The research work is based on the survey method. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the CLs of 105 universities. The collected data was analysed descriptively.

The major findings of the study are that there is a dire need to improve the awareness level of the university library CLs regarding censorship. It was also found that a majority of the CLs do have not any formal written policy to handle censorship issues. However, religion was the main cause of censorship in a majority of cases. The study also indicated that social media was the most preferred source CLs use to update their knowledge.

The current study covers only the CLs of universities of Punjab and the Federal area. Therefore, its findings cannot be generalized to all the library professionals of Pakistan.

The study will help to understand the awareness level of CLs about censorship-related issues and provide an opportunity for university authorities to arrange training programs for the CLs to enhance their capabilities to deal with censorship issues.

The study will provide awareness and preparedness status of CLs regarding censorship issues.

This chapter examines the difficulties teachers currently face while attempting to teach toward more justice, more equity, and more healing in an increasingly challenging political climate. The author explores how Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been used by activists and politicians on the far right to shut down good faith debates about what students should learn about race in America and in the teaching of American history. The author suggests how progressive educators and teacher educators can best respond in this political moment and reclaim the debate over our shared values of freedom, justice, and democracy.

This chapter proposes a sustainable trajectory for leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) organizational change in higher education. Leadership practices and strategies necessary to construct and implement change and cultivate diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational environments are deliberated, with particular emphasis on transformational leadership theories and practices. These types of organization development practices produce concrete transformation in institutions that have long-established, inert, and deeply entrenched cultures in which discriminatory or even racist practices have been deeply embedded and accepted over time. The complex dynamics of transformation in higher education, brought on, in part, by the rigidity of its organizational structure coupled with its history and foundation in racism and racist practices, makes achieving sustainable change difficult in higher education. Transformational change requires the creation of new mental models through meaning making and perspective sharing that allow individuals in higher education to think differently about how higher education institutions should operate given the rapid shifts in our society. Organizational change leaders must engage in deep, purposeful, and critical reflection and examination of the organization's culture to lay the groundwork for significant change. The chapter explores topics such as leading change through transformational leadership and the styles, practices, and capabilities associated with it, leadership development, strategic diversity leadership, and the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) as change leader in higher education. The internal and external environmental trends demanding substantive change in higher education continue to intensify over time. The demand for pervasive transformation in higher education is resounding, and institutional leaders must be open to and even drive new and innovative approaches to shifting its very core – its DNA, its culture – to meet those demands.

This paper aims to center the experiences of three cohorts (n = 40) of Black high school students who participated in a critical race technology course that exposed anti-blackness as the organizing logic and default setting of digital and artificially intelligent technology. This paper centers the voices, experiences and technological innovations of the students, and in doing so, introduces a new type of digital literacy: critical race algorithmic literacy.

Data for this study include student interviews (called “talk backs”), journal reflections and final technology presentations.

Broadly, the data suggests that critical race algorithmic literacies prepare Black students to critically read the algorithmic word (e.g. data, code, machine learning models, etc.) so that they can not only resist and survive, but also rebuild and reimagine the algorithmic world.

While critical race media literacy draws upon critical race theory in education – a theorization of race, and a critique of white supremacy and multiculturalism in schools – critical race algorithmic literacy is rooted in critical race technology theory, which is a theorization of blackness as a technology and a critique of algorithmic anti-blackness as the organizing logic of schools and AI systems.

Recognizing that hate crimes and antisemitic attacks are increasing, the purpose of this article is to discuss ways The Assignment by Liza Wiemer, a contemporary young adult novel that depicts curriculum violence and its effects on students, acts as a “disruptor” in young adult literature. The authors present a rationale for using young adult literature on The Holocaust in high school classrooms to challenge the status quo and identify ways to become upstanders in the face of hate.

Through a content analysis using a critical literacy framework, the authors analyzed The Assignment for pedagogical ways to use the novel to challenge educators and students to examine and rethink how they feel about hate, bias and antisemitism.

Four ways the novel can be used as a disrupter were identified: text structure and language, pedagogical practices and curriculum violence, the student/peer/authority figure power dynamic and challenging accepted beliefs that can lead to bias, hate and antisemitism.

Although all individuals can be impacted by hate and antisemitism, this article focuses on young adults as they are the novel’s target audience. However, the authors believe people of all ages have the potential to disrupt societal practices and become upstanders and suggest ideas in this article be applied broadly to other novels and teaching situations.

A focus is on the ways the novel can build a community of allies and upstanders – students as agents of change rather than complacent bystanders. As bias, hate and antisemitism are on the rise, this article presents a unique way to combat it through literature and critical discussion.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and in what ways library workers in the United States encountered patrons espousing beliefs in conspiracy theories and, if so, to explore the effectiveness of the strategies they used to address information disorder during the interactions.

The study was designed with an exploratory qualitative approach. Data were collected via an online survey posted to national and state library association listservs, utilizing a self-selected sampling method. Researchers inductively and deductively analyzed results, developing predetermined themes based on the research questions, then iteratively integrating unexpected data during coding.

A total of 334 responses were received over two weeks. Data represent library workers from 43 states and Washington, D.C., including various types of libraries. Library workers interacted with patrons with conspiratorial thinking, and both library workers and patrons evidenced a range of emotions and motivations.

This is the first national study to survey library workers and whether they encountered patrons espousing conspiracy theories. While the sample size is small, themes elucidate various strategies that library workers use for interacting with patrons who express some level of conspiracy ideation.