ERIC Number: EJ1466887
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 30
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1071-4413
EISSN: EISSN-1556-3022
Available Date: 0000-00-00
United for What and for Whom? An Analysis of White Christian Nationalism in a 2023 School Board Election Campaign
Esther Prins; Mary Juzwik; Gonca Acaray
Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v47 n1 p152-181 2025
Public school board elections have become cultural battlegrounds as groups with opposing views on education, politics, religion, and social and cultural issues vie to shape public education, their communities, and the nation. To date, little research has examined White Christian nationalism as a political force shaping these elections. This paper analyzes the November 2023 State College Area School District (SCASD) school board election in a polarized Pennsylvania town, focusing on the five "United for SCASD" candidates. Using public data (e.g., Facebook, websites, radio interviews, emails from candidates to board and administrators), the paper examines how these candidates' rhetoric -- largely drawing on Civil Rights-era minoritarian framing -- mobilized key White Christian nationalist tropes such as persecution and voicelessness. The findings explore how candidates characterized desirable versus undesirable types of unity and diversity. For instance, they advocated for focusing on students' "common humanity" and teaching American exceptionalism as unifying strategies, argued for "parents' rights" to opt children out of objectionable material, and asserted the need for "viewpoint diversity" on the board. However, they opposed the board's alleged ideological uniformity and "divisive" initiatives and curricula focusing on systemic inequities, especially concerning race/racism and gender. The data show some evidence of White Christian nationalist tropes, particularly beliefs in American exceptionalism, the trope of persecution and voicelessness, the assertion of a common cultural template for US public schools, and us-them binaries, in this case, between liberal board members and their constituents versus the U4SCASD slate and more "conservative," often rural, families.
Descriptors: Boards of Education, Board of Education Role, Board Candidates, Nationalism, Whites, Christianity, Political Issues, Politics of Education, Content Analysis, Attitudes, Data Analysis, State Colleges, School Districts, Social Desirability, Social Bias, Racism, Sex Fairness, Ideology, Political Campaigns, Elections
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Pennsylvania
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A