Influence of Anti-DEI Legislation on Biology Instructors’ Agency Regarding Inclusive Content

The United States is experiencing an influx of executive orders (EOs) as well as proposed and enacted laws restricting how institutions and educators attend to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We investigated the influence of the contentious sociopolitical climate created by anti-DEI laws in the context of higher education biology. Accurate and inclusive approaches of addressing the biological and social dimensions of diverse human experiences is becoming ever more imperative, particularly because of the way inaccurate claims about biology are being wielded to justify prejudicial EOs and legislation. Through the lens of faculty agency, we examined how biology instructors’ agentic actions (behavior aimed at achieving one’s goals) and agentic perspectives (viewing the self as capable of achieving those goals) are being influenced by anti-DEI laws. Participants expressed minimally changing their instructional content, although they became more aware of possible negative consequences of teaching potentially controversial topics. This led to participants making subtle changes to avoid scrutiny regarding their teaching. We call for more coalition building across administrators, faculty, and students for ongoing and proactive resistance against the anti-DEI movement.