​

UT faculty want academic freedom to teach about topics related to critical race theory despite government pushback.

​

March 1, 2022

If a ban on the teaching of critical race theory were to go into effect, University of Texas lecturer Erna Smith said she would have to change the way she teaches her class. Smith said she would no longer be able to assign books that critically examine race relations or discuss the realities of racism in America and how it affects marginalized communities. 

“Part of learning is to become uncomfortable. It’s not comfortable to learn new things. It's not comfortable to learn things that make you question the world,” Smith said. “But that's why we have education. And being uncomfortable doesn't hurt you. It may be the path to growth.”

Critical race theory is an academic framework that examines how systemic racism is a part of American society by recognizing that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that continue to uphold racial inequalities, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, a racial justice organization.

Effective Dec. 2, 2021, Senate Bill 3 replaced House Bill 3979 and created stricter guidelines for how educators teach about topics such as race and racism. This legislation further limited public school K-12 educators from teaching “widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs.” The bill also prohibits teaching topics that cause students to feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of their race or sex.”

The University of Texas Faculty Council approved a resolution on Feb. 14 supporting and defending the academic freedom of professors to teach and research topics of race, gender justice and critical race theory. The resolution states, “educators, not politicians, should make decisions about teaching and learning.” 

Smith attended middle school in Texas in the 1960s. Despite her young age, Smith said she often felt uncomfortable and ashamed of being a Black student attending a predominantly white school. 

Jim Crow laws mandated the segregation of schools, businesses and neighborhoods by race and even suppressed the voting rights of Black citizens. While these laws were legally abolished in 1965, racial discrimination continued to affect almost every aspect of daily life. 

After pursuing a career in journalism, Smith began teaching at UT in 2016 and in 2017 began teaching Reporting Social Justice, a class dedicated to “interpersonal and systemic inequalities in American society.”

“A much more interesting story to me of America is how we are trying to get over our imperfections and how we are trying to create a more perfect union because the one created was based on ideas that we have decided as a society are no longer viable,” Smith said. 

In her Reporting Social Justice class, Smith assigned the autobiographical book of essays “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning” by Cathy Park Hong. In the book, Hong shares her experience of her relationship with American society and her own culture. 

Smith said she and her students were able to relate and empathize with the author despite their cultural differences. “I think it touched them. You can’t help but feel something,” Smith said 

She said if Texas legislators were to ban the teaching of critical race theory, she would no longer be able to assign that book.

Andrea Gore, this year’s chair of the Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility and author of the resolution, said faculty have the academic freedom to teach in their areas of expertise.

In September 2021, Gore was contacted by a group of faculty members from around the country who were developing resolutions in support of academic freedom to teach race and gender-related topics. The Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility agreed to propose a resolution and modified the proposal to fit the current circumstance at UT and the state of Texas. She then contacted the chairs of UT’s equity councils for input and support. Finally, she presented the resolution for a vote at Faculty Council, where it passed by a majority vote with 41 for, five against and three abstaining.

“With so many states having active or pending legislation limiting classroom teaching, the idea was to have a proactive national movement in support of the freedom to teach in areas that may be considered controversial,” Gore said.

Gore said she was not expecting any response from government officials. She was surprised by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s statements of wanting to ban critical race theory as well as his description of UT professors as “looney Marxists.” In his proposed legislative agenda, Patrick said he would ban tenure and make teaching critical race theory a firing offense.

“Politicians in Texas should understand that doing away with tenure in public universities will irreparably harm higher education in the state,” Gore said. “This would be a huge disservice to the students and citizens of Texas.”

Tenure, an indefinite academic appointment that can only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances, is the norm in universities across the U.S. The primary purpose of tenure is to safeguard academic freedom. 

“Academic freedom at universities is uniquely important because research, scholarship and teaching at the cutting edge is often controversial, challenging dogma and taking risks,” Gore said. “Consequently, faculty will follow more conventional and less risky paths and miss making the key discoveries that make a top university such as UT Austin exactly that, a first-class university.”

Kevin Cokley, current chair of the Department of Educational Psychology, conducts research on racial and ethnic identity by exploring the psychological and environmental factors that impact African American students’ academic achievement and mental health. 

Cokley has written multiple editorials published in USA Today and Psychology Today denoting that critical race theory should not be divisive. He said the controversy surrounding critical race theory is “politically manufactured.”

“This is really about trying to control a narrative about this country and preventing any sort of critical analysis of how this country deals with race and how race differentially impacts the outcomes of people,” Cokley said. “That is not an opinion. That is an empirical fact.”

Cokley said he will not be changing the way he teaches as there is “no real threat” to the removal of tenure because of its importance to higher education. 

“The idea that you can have a legislator and politician dictate to educators what they can or cannot or should or should not be teaching students around issues related to the history of our state or our country, it's really insulting,” Cokley said. 

He said while threats from legislators are concerning for new faculty, academic freedom is a right given to all professors, regardless of their rank. 

“The resolution,” Cokley said, “was a powerful symbol for all faculty.”