A letter to teacher candidates at the dawn of the Trump Presidency

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe a letter written to undergraduate students before their enrollment in a required foundations course, Service-Learning in English Education, taken before admission to the English education program at [the university]. The course, offered in the spring of 2017, came on the heels of Donald Trump’s election to the US Presidency, an event that followed from a campaign that raged against “politically correct” social developments that respect the dignity of people historically marginalized in US society.

Design/methodology/approach

The letter lays out the perils of teaching a diversity-oriented course in an era of disdain for diverse people and cultures. The letter explains how the course design attempts to give all interpretive authority to the students through their selection of course books and the book club design of promoting discussion outside professorial surveillance.

Findings

The paper includes the comments of three students regarding their response to the letter and course, and concludes that teaching a politicized course in a tempestuous time is risky yet possible.

Originality/value

This paper looks at one teacher educator’s approach to introducing diversity-related ideas in a Red State during an anti-diversity presidency.

Citation

Smagorinsky, P., Brasley, A., Johnson, R. and Shurtz, L. (2017), "A letter to teacher candidates at the dawn of the Trump Presidency", English Teaching: Practice & Critique, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-05-2017-0084