“It is sometimes scary to be a teacher right now”: impacts of divisive concept laws on choral music teachers in North Carolina

In the United States, state legislations have increasingly passed policies limiting what and how teachers are able to teach in their classrooms. Termed Divisive Concept Laws (DCL), these types of legislation can impact curricular content, student-teacher relationships, and student and teacher wellbeing. DCLs represent a growing area of state-level education policy that has implications for curricula, teacher agency, and equity-oriented instruction across subject areas, including choral music. The purpose of this study was to examine both the perceived impacts of DCLs and the strategies choral music teachers employ to navigate these policies in their classrooms, schools, and broader communities. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five choral music teachers in North Carolina. Findings suggest that administrative leadership, community input, and student-teacher relationships influenced how participants navigated DCL policies.