Abolition as embodied curriculum: Early-career teachers of Color and the collaborative design of a prison and police abolition unit

Purpose The teaching of prison and police abolition provides youth the opportunity to (re)imagine and (re)configure society away from carceral practices, policies, and ideologies in favor of more humanizing and liberatory alternatives. Toward this end, this paper explores how a group of early-career teachers of Color collaboratively design a prison and police abolition unit to teach in their respective middle school and high school English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Design/methodology/approach Through a qualitative case study of six early-career ELA teachers of Color, and by using the frameworks of abolitionism as praxis and inquiry as stance, the author elucidates the key curricular components participants centered in their collaborative curriculum design of a prison and police abolition unit. Findings This study demonstrates how early-career ELA teachers of Color enact what the author terms abolition as embodied curriculum by engaging in collective reflection, theorization, and practice to design a unit on prison and police abolition. Specifically, findings reveal how participants centered the following in their curricular co-design: abolitionist possibilities over carceral problems; localizing examples of carcerality and abolitionist social movements; and modifying the teaching of literature to explore abolitionism. These findings underscore the importance of teacher collaboration in curriculum design and curricular decision-making. Originality/value This study contributes to the nascent scholarship on the teaching of prison and police abolition in K-12 ELA classrooms. First, this study demonstrates how early-career teachers of Color draw on collaborative reflection, theorization, and practice to engage in abolition as embodied curriculum. Second, it provides insights into key concepts to consider when designing for the teaching of prison and police abolition in ELA classrooms. Finally, this study offers implications for teacher education and the preparation and support of early-career ELA teachers as it relates to curriculum and instruction.