A recent poll from Pew Research revealed that various education-related demographics, from parents and students to teachers, are opposed to the propagation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideology in the classroom.
One of the polls, conducted between October 17 and November 14, 2023 among K-12 teachers nationwide found that 41 percent of the 2,531 teachers surveyed said that debates over race and gender identity “had a negative impact on their ability to do their job” – ten times the mere four percent who claimed that it had a positive impact. The remaining percentage of surveyed teachers stated that it made neither a positive or negative impact.
Other noticeable trends that emerged from the survey include a general reluctance to teach DEI-related subjects in the classroom. Half of the surveyed teachers were opposed to teaching their students about gender identity, including 62 percent of elementary school teachers. Many teachers also expressed concern over a lack of autonomy in deciding what can be taught in the classroom. Fifty-eight percent (58%) think that the government, parents, and school boards exercise too much control over teaching, and 71 percent say that teachers have insufficient control over the curriculum that is taught.
Significant numbers of American parents also expressed in a separate survey conducted from September to October, 2022, that they preferred topics affiliated with DEI not be taught to their children. According to this poll, 42 percent of the 3,251 parents surveyed wanted their children “to learn that slavery no longer affects black Americans.” Additionally, 37 percent of parents surveyed did not want their children to be taught about gender identity in the classroom and 31 percent of those surveyed wanted students to be taught that gender identity is biologically determined.
In a separate survey of U.S. teens, 48 percent said they do not want gender ideology taught in schools, while 26 percent want a biologically-determined view of gender identity to be taught, meaning that 74 percent of surveyed teens are opposed to the teaching of left-wing gender identity in schools.
While backlash to DEI has been observed at a governmental level in state legislatures, these polls reveal that even among American teachers, DEI and its associated ideologies are decidedly unpopular. With both parents and teen students in opposition, it seems that the crackdown on left-wing ideology in the classroom will only continue to gain momentum.