TY - JOUR
T1 - “We Don’t Teach Critical Race Theory Here”
T2 - A Sentiment Analysis of K-12 School and District Social Media Statements
AU - Hodge, Emily M.
AU - Rosenberg, Joshua M.
AU - López, Francesca A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Conservative activism around the purported influence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) on K-12 education has swept the country in recent years. While others have documented the sources of these messages, how school districts have responded to these critiques has not yet been investigated. Drawing on research on how social media algorithms elevate polarizing information and activate emotions, we analyze public social media posts on school/district Facebook pages mentioning the phrase “critical race” to examine how educators address the claim of teaching CRT and how the local community responds. We use sentiment analysis to examine the emotions of these posts and how they are distributed across states. We also explore the sentiment of subsequent community reactions reflected in the comments of each post, including negative emotions such as anger and fear, and positive emotions such as trust. This study has implications for how school districts can help to stop cycles of fearful rhetoric and engage with stakeholders in ways that unite a school community around shared priorities.
AB - Conservative activism around the purported influence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) on K-12 education has swept the country in recent years. While others have documented the sources of these messages, how school districts have responded to these critiques has not yet been investigated. Drawing on research on how social media algorithms elevate polarizing information and activate emotions, we analyze public social media posts on school/district Facebook pages mentioning the phrase “critical race” to examine how educators address the claim of teaching CRT and how the local community responds. We use sentiment analysis to examine the emotions of these posts and how they are distributed across states. We also explore the sentiment of subsequent community reactions reflected in the comments of each post, including negative emotions such as anger and fear, and positive emotions such as trust. This study has implications for how school districts can help to stop cycles of fearful rhetoric and engage with stakeholders in ways that unite a school community around shared priorities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173767006&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85173767006&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/0161956X.2023.2261318
DO - 10.1080/0161956X.2023.2261318
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85173767006
SN - 0161-956X
VL - 98
SP - 533
EP - 547
JO - Peabody Journal of Education
JF - Peabody Journal of Education
IS - 5
ER -