“Walking on eggshells”: music educator perceptions of agency in times of surveillance and divisive concept laws

Abstract

Legislation in the United States has increasingly led to limitations on what and how educators are able to teach in the classroom. These measures, often deemed divisive concept laws, can lead to a host of challenges for music educators, impacting student/teacher relationships, repertoire selection, pedagogical practices, and student and teacher safety and mental health, among other concerns. Furthermore, constriction of content can frame the music educator as a deliverer of curriculum wherein the educator may feel stripped of their professional agency. The purpose of this study was to explore how, if at all, music educators from four states considering or actively enacting divisive concept laws achieved agency in their unique contexts. Data included semi-structured interviews with eight music educators. Findings suggest that stakeholders responded to policies in varying ways, the language of policies played a significant role in how policies were understood and enacted, and participants found divisive concept laws as particularly challenging in the midst of broader deprofessionalization of teaching.