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Understanding Florida’s HB7: A Policy of Intimidation by Confusion

Dilys Schoorman https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8498-1675 [email protected] and Rosanna GatensView all authors and affiliations

Volume 39, Issue 2

https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241235405

Abstract
References
Biographies

Abstract

“Divisive Concepts” laws have sprung up around the nation as a backlash to the widespread commitments to anti-racist education that emerged in summer 2020. This critical policy analysis examines the concepts central to Florida’s “Individual Freedom Act” [HB7] of 2022, to determine its intent and impact in ameliorating or exacerbating persistent educational inequities. Through an analysis of the language of the law for what is and is not banned as well as the discrepancies between language of the legal text juxtaposed with the “Anti-Woke” political rhetoric accompanying HB7, this study reveals the law’s ideological underpinnings and political intent. The law’s concepts serve as a manufactured pretext to villainize teachers, misrepresent Critical Race Theory, cause confusion and fear, thereby chilling educator practice. The analysis also reveals how, despite the law’s intent, the concepts can be reframed to support educational equity. Implications for equity-minded practitioners within K-20 education contexts are explored.

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Biographies

Dilys Schoorman, Ph.D. is a Professor of Education at Florida Atlantic University who specializes in multicultural education and its implications for curriculum, instruction, higher education governance and leadership. She is deeply committed to serving among and learning from the diverse communities of practice within which she engages as a researcher.

Rosanna Gatens, Ph.D. is an historian of Twentieth Century Germany and retired director of the Florida Atlantic University Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights.

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