Coming in Hot: Literacy Teacher Educators’ Response to the Chilling Effects of Educational Censorship

Our self-study occurred amid growing sociopolitical tensions in the United States regarding book bans and educational censorship, which have been shown to mediate teachers’ text selection and family engagement practices. As a response to these tensions, we engaged in a self-study around the collaborative design of a caregiver letter assignment wherein preservice teachers were asked to introduce families to diverse texts. Through our reflective and critical discussions, we realized that the writing assignment was more complex than we initially anticipated. Complicated by our approach that came in ‘too hot’, the assignment elicited a charged response from our preservice teachers rather than helping them navigate the sociopolitical context. However, through the self-study’s emphasis on vulnerability, we learned how to better support our preservice teachers in communicating their selection of diverse texts. In turn, this self-study highlights three important takeaways: first, assignments must meet students where they are in terms of justice-oriented teaching; second, caregiver letters should be framed as tools for building family-school partnerships, not as strategies for anticipating conflict; and third, collaborative reflective practice among teacher educators is crucial for refining scaffolding that supports preservice teachers in engaging with social justice perspectives and family partnerships, particularly within the current sociopolitical climate.