Should I Teach This Text?

Abstract

During a time when legislation stands in opposition to principles of academic freedom, educators need tools (e.g. text complexity rationales) to make their classroom a place that is inclusive. This article provides guidance on best practices for selecting, teaching, and using controversial, challenged, or banned texts in educational contexts. The authors demonstrate how they have used text rationales to answer, “Should I teach this text?” Using a Q&A approach, each contributor briefly discusses responses to provide rationale on how to support “the right to read” from a variety of perspectives-- professor, (graduate) student, classroom teacher, and parent.

Keywords

• censorship
• text selection
• divisive concepts
• book challenges
• academic freedom