UW-Madison trains future teachers in ‘anti-racist behaviors,’ social justice

Course raises academic freedom concerns

The University of Wisconsin-Madison teaches future educators “social justice” and “anti-racist behaviors” in a course offered in the upcoming fall semester.

The “Teaching Diverse Learners” course aims “to foster cultural awareness at the individual and institutional levels, and to promote equitable and anti-racist behaviors as well as social justice in educational practices,” according to its description on the school’s website. 

Another similar course, called “Perspectives in Multicultural Education,” teaches “ethnic studies, black studies, feminist theory, antiracist pedagogy, bilingual education, and critical race theory” to promote “multicultural education.”

The content of these courses has raised academic freedom concerns.

Graham Piro, faculty legal defense fund fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The College Fix, “The First Amendment prohibits government actors from requiring that people adopt or express specific points of view under threat of punishment.”

He noted that some courts have held that it is a protection that applies to institutions of higher education, while others have held that it is a legal right granted to individual professors and scholars.

The Supreme Court of the U.S. has yet to affirm one perspective over the other, with the most recent ruling leaving the question open for another time, he said.

Regardless, “mandating that faculty adopt specific ideological views to advance their careers or teach in the classroom violates their academic freedom,” Piro said.

“Universities are explicitly restricting the expression of specific ideas concerning race or gender, and that raises just as severe academic freedom concerns,” he said.

These schools must protect the right of faculty “to determine how best to approach specific topics in the classroom, especially when those topics may cause discomfort among students,” Piro said.

Finally, he said FIRE has “been extremely critical of mandatory DEI statements, which can too often function as implicit ideological tests.”

In addition to academic freedom concerns, others have criticized the priorities of these courses.

Neetu Arnold, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, wrote on X that UW-Madison is teaching future educators “Latinx Literacies,” “social justice in educational practices,” and “how policies sustain white privilege” while students are struggling with “basic reading & math.”

This follows Arnold’s investigation published by City Journal on whether UW-Madison has truly removed its “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies.

She noted that UW-Madison’s School of Education recently hosted an exhibit with signs and shirts that read, “All White People are Racist” and “UW’s Free Speech = White Supremacy.”

One sign showed the school’s mascot, a badger, “wearing a KKK hood and holding a noose,” while others showed the severed heads of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiative hosted the exhibit called “Da Hoodzeum presents: In Direct Action—A decade of Activist Art at University of Wisconsin–Madison.”

The university told City Journal the signs did not represent the views of UW-Madison and the school did not fund the exhibit. However, Arnold noted the exhibit “was part of a public university-sponsored event.”

“As an administrative unit, OMAI also can’t claim the same protections of academic freedom that an academic department could,” Arnold wrote.

The Fix reached out to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for more information on the “Teaching Diverse Learners” and “Perspectives in Multicultural Education” courses, but received no response.

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