Critical race theory, books, and ChatGPT: Moving from a ban culture in education to a culture of restoration

Abstract

Any person in tune with the national landscape of education is vastly aware of the plethora of proposed–and in some cases passed–state legislated school bans that restrict what students learn and how they are taught in public schools. Such legislation has focused on banning curriculum deemed divisive, teaching socio-emotional learning, teaching about gender and sexuality, using students’ “preferred” pronouns, restricting diversity training for educators, and removing “controversial” books from school libraries. The resurgence of the cultural wars (Hartman, 2019) taking root in education has significant implications for schools, educators, and students (Natanson et al., 2022; Ravitch, 2002; Zimmerman, 2022). For example, in a study of 682 principals, Rogers et al. (2022) found that: