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Professor Anita Chikkatur and Educational Studies Alumnus Peter Sang ’17 at the State Capitol on Monday, February 27th, 2023. Anita and Peter were both there in support of the “Our History, Our Schools” campaign coordinated by the Minnesota Ethnic Studies Coalition and to show support for the Ethnic Studies for All bill (HF1502 Sencer-Mura, SF1476 Kunesh), which will require ethnic studies instruction in all K-12 schools in Minnesota. Peter is currently teaching a critical ethnic studies course at Washington Technology Secondary Magnet in St. Paul.

Teachers and librarians are contemporary heroes, caught in the crossfire between challenges of books from the political left and the right.

To teach or not to teach “Of Mice and Men”? If it’s taught, how do teachers do it? What about trigger warnings, in the news recently when a Muslim student complained about seeing a picture of the Prophet in an art history class at Hamline University? Do we handle “cancel culture” by simply making challenged books disappear? And what is all this anger about books doing to our young people’s’ abilities to learn from literature?

These are the big questions that Deborah Appleman tackles in “Literature and the New Culture Wars”

Deborah Appleman’s new book is “Literature and the New Culture Wars: Triggers, Cancel Culture and the Teacher’s Dilemma.”

By Laurie Hertzel Star Tribune

The timing of Deborah Appleman’s latest book could not be better. The Carleton College professor of educational studies writes about the classroom experience, both that of teachers and that of students. And as we all know, the classroom experience is getting more and more fraught. Her new book, “Literature and the New Culture Wars: Triggers, Cancel Culture and the Teacher’s Dilemma,” poses the question “Can educators continue to teach troubling texts?” Might as well ask, can they continue to show troubling paintings in an art history class? The culture wars are complicated, and questions and resistance come from all directions.

Appleman has two appearances coming up in the Twin Cities. She will be in conversation with Artika Tyner at 7 p.m. Jan 30 at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis, and she will speak at 6 p.m. Feb. 7 at Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul.

Education Week unveiled the 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, ranking the university-based scholars in the United States who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy. Carleton’s Educational Studies Professor, Jeff Snyder, and History Professor, Amna Khalid made the top 200!

Read Deborah Appleman’s article ‘I’ve Become a Reluctant Warrior Against Cancel Culture’

MADNESS AND MAYHEM: CURRENT ISSUES IN EDUCATIONPresentation by the Educational Studies Senior Seminar

Read Professor Snyder’s op-ed in the Star Tribune.

In this interview with Carleton’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement, Professor Chikkatur talks about the Participatory Action Research Website. This website came about as part of a multi-year, campus-community participatory action research (PAR) collaboration between Carleton College and community members and institutions in Faribault, MN, and was funded through a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps).

Check out a video by Healthy Community Initiative that features the RISE program — a program that was developed partly in response to the research done by community teams as part of the participatory action research project in Faribault.

Breakthrough is a national collaborative that comprises 25 sites across the country. Its overall mission is to launch high potential, low-income middle school students on the path to college, while also inspiring talented high school and college students to pursue careers in education.