Quoting the Salt Lake Tribune: “In response to the uproar over critical race theory, the Utah Board of Education has approved a new set of standards that spell out what teachers can — and especially what they cannot — say to their students about ethnicity, inclusion, equity and culture.” The Utah Legislature has also passed resolutions on the topic. Today we’ll try to define what Critical Race Theory is and isn’t and talk about what should and shouldn’t be taught in Utah’s K-12 schools.
Our guests include Cree Taylor, a Lecturer in the English Department at Utah State University; and Beth Buyserie, Assistant Professor and Director of Composition in the USU English Department.
In addition to working with her spouse to raise three young children, Cree Phillips Taylor is a Lecturer at Utah State University (USU). Her research interests include Critical Race Theory and Pedagogy as they apply to Composition and Literature instruction in the First Year Composition classroom. She works to employ an Engaged Pedagogy and establish her classroom as a brave space where students feel empowered to share their own perspectives, have those perspectives challenged, as well as read and analyze texts that advocate for perspectives that differ from their own.
Beth Buyserie is the Director of Composition and Assistant Professor of English at Utah State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education from Washington State University in May 2018. Her work focuses on writing program administration, the teaching of composition, critical pedagogies, professional learning, and the intersections of language, knowledge, and power through the lenses of queer theory and critical race theory.
