Political Neutrality in Schools
This term refers to the belief that schools should not engage in political or value-based education.
What is political neutrality?
This term refers to the reduction of critical social justice scholarship to personal values and political correctness.
What is the radical scholars objection?
This term refers to the use of notable public figures from minoritized groups to argue that structural barriers do not exist.
What is citing exceptions to the rule?
This term refers to the claim that oppression is a natural and inevitable part of human behavior.
What is the human nature argument?
This term refers to the idea that the language we use to name a social group shapes the way we think about that group.
What is language construction?
This landmark case ended legal segregation in U.S. schools, illustrating the political nature of education.
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
This term describes the belief that mainstream perspectives are neutral and objective, while social justice perspectives are biased.
What is the neutrality bias?
This term describes the argument that the presidency of Barack Obama proves that racism has ended in the United States.
What is the Obama exception?
This term describes the belief that inequality is biologically determined and cannot be changed.
What is biological determinism?
This term describes the deliberate political effort to change public perceptions of a population by changing the language used to describe them.
What is language reformation?
This term describes the idea that schools should prepare students for democratic citizenship by fostering critical thinking and perspective-taking.
What is civic education?
This term refers to the challenge to the idea that any knowledge is neutral or objective and outside of humanly constructed meanings and interests.
What is critical theory?
This term refers to the use of personal or anecdotal examples to argue against the existence of systemic oppression.
What is anecdotal evidence?
This term refers to the argument that someone has to be on top, and that social hierarchies are natural.
What is the natural hierarchy argument?
This term refers to the resistance to changes in language regarding minoritized groups, often seen as willful irresponsibility.
What is language resistance?
This term refers to the historical and ongoing political struggles within the education system, such as debates over curriculum content.
What are educational politics?
This term describes the dismissal of social justice scholarship as merely the personal opinions of individual left-wing professors.
What is the dismissal of radical scholarship?
This term describes the idea that while exceptions exist, they do not change the overall system of oppression.
What is the exception that proves the rule?
This term describes the idea that humans have always strived to overcome oppression and make society more just.
What is the progress argument?
This term describes the idea that language is a form of knowledge construction and has political power.
What is the politics of language?
This term describes the role of schools in educating students about the nation's social history and providing multiple perspectives.
What is social justice education?
This term refers to the accusation that professors have a liberal bias, often used to discredit social justice education.
What is the liberal bias accusation?
This term refers to the argument that individual success stories invalidate the existence of structural barriers.
What is the meritocracy myth?
This term refers to the question of whom it serves to say that oppressing others is natural.
What is the power-serving argument?
This term refers to the argument that we should not have to watch everything we say, often used to dismiss the impact of language on oppression.
What is the free speech argument?