Recently, the state of Florida installed new signs at the state lines, which read, “Welcome to the free state of Florida.” I have lived and worked in Florida since 2011, and this has never felt less true.
I am a faculty member at a large public university, where I teach and conduct research about identity, culture, and communication. This month marks my 21st year teaching in college classrooms. For most of that time, I took for granted the extensive level of education, training, and experience I leverage in making decisions about what to cover in my classes and how to teach my subject matter expertise. While these skills remain crucial, my colleagues and I face new challenges as we experience threats to our academic freedom and freedom of speech in our classrooms.
In 2022, the Florida legislature passed House Bill 7, the Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, or more commonly the Stop W.O.K.E. Act. In my experience, this bill constrains how professors can teach about certain topics and concepts in our classrooms at public institutions in Florida. While this is just one of the many attacks I see imposed on public education right now, the Stop W.O.K.E. Act has already taken a toll on faculty and students alike.
I have lost count of the departure emails announcing another one of my faculty colleagues leaving our institution for another state or choosing early retirement. While I can’t speak to every individual decision, I personally know many folks who have left out of fear, frustration, or fatigue. Without the academic freedom to do our work following best practices recognized by our national organizations and peers, more and more scholars will leave Florida, and the value of education here will continue to decline.
Our students deserve an education that exposes them to complex and often difficult truths about the history and structures in our country, and even in our own universities. As someone who works with students every day, I know students are bright and curious and want to learn—even when it is uncomfortable. Over my decades in the classroom, many students have shared over and over how much they value meeting people from diverse backgrounds and learning things that are entirely new to them.
Our legislators need to have more faith in students’ ability to think critically and engage with the course content students and families work so hard to afford and experience. My students are overwhelmingly first generation, worker-learners (i.e., they work at least 30 hours a week), and they not only want to be challenged—they also need an education that will allow them to be competitive in graduate school and in the workforce.
I have spent my academic career helping organizations and movements communicate in ways that create more humane and equitable learning and working environments. For example, I collaborate with scholars across disciplines to work toward broadening participation in the sciences through National Science Foundation and Sloan Foundation Grants. In this work, I develop training programs for faculty and staff about mentoring and leadership communication that is responsive to student identities and needs.
I also work with minoritized students to understand the “hidden curriculum” of higher education in order to build towards dismantling the oppressive structures that can prevent student success. At its most basic, this means taking into account our identities and how these impact our experiences in many complex contexts.
Every aspect of the work I do is at odds with this legislation. For example, under the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, I am prohibited from critiquing important concepts, like “colorblindness” (among others), which are necessary to understand as part of establishing a foundation of effective communication behavior. This law, and its subsequent regulations, prevent me from teaching concepts that are fundamental to my disciplinary knowledge in communication research and teaching.
To deny the realities of my students’ lived experiences is to betray my role as their trusted partner in making sense of this world. My goal as an educator and learning guide is to make the invisible visible, and to work with students to ensure they have everything they need to be confident and caring participants in their communities and workplaces.
Public education is a public good. It’s time Florida lives up to its ideal of freedom by allowing educators to educate and students to learn more about the world they actually live in, in all its complexity.
As the fight continues for academic freedom in public education, we encourage educators and supporters to be engaged. Stay informed, even about events outside of your state. Use your voice, write op-eds, attend town halls, make public comment, contact your school boards and other elected officials. And vote for candidates who support high-quality and equitable education that is free from censorship.
Learn more about the current legal challenge to Stop W.O.K.E.
