Teacher identity and political instruction

Abstract

Political instruction is considered a hallmark of a quality K-12 civic education; however, most of the research in this area has focused on how students receive such instruction or how external pressures exacerbate teachers’ fears associated with broaching controversial issues in their classes. In this chapter, I explore the relationship between teacher identity and political instruction. My purpose is not to explicitly define how teachers’ identities influence their political instruction; rather, this chapter serves as a call for increased attention to the role teacher identity may play in K-12 political instruction.