Teaching Towards Coalitions: Case Studies of Arizona Counterpublics

Abstract

Teaching Towards Coalitions: Case Studies in Arizona Counterpublics responds to the current demonization of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public school curricula by emphasizing the importance of cultivating students' coalitional capacities through historical research of what Karma Chávez calls coalitional moments or moments “when political issues coincide or merge in the public sphere in ways that create space to reenvision and potentially reconstruct rhetorical imaginaries” (8). This manuscript interrogates four coalitional moments in Arizona's educational history–the late nineteenth century during the onset of Americanization programs, the 1960s and 1970s during the civil rights movement, the three-year battle to ban ethnic studies in Arizona schools between 2007-2010, and the present attacks on Critical Race Theory (CRT), LGBTQ+ content in school libraries, and dual language programs in Arizona schools. My analysis of these coalitional moments attends to how intersectional coalitions of Arizona teachers and students participated in counterpublics, exposed hegemonic functions of public education, and revised racially and linguistically restrictive ideologies in Arizona's schools. While these coalitional moments speak specifically to Arizona's history, they provide educators across geographies with a locally focused framework they can adapt to their context. The focus of this method is to study cases of student activists that contribute to counterpublics as a means for transforming their education system to reflect their culture and communities. In this way, this manuscript argues for teaching the history of coalitions from educators’ local context to promote coalitional thinking among current teachers and students.