Pew surveys find teachers, adults and students uncomfortable with K-12 gender identity lessons

Public school lessons on transgender identity and racism have sparked conflict in recent years, but a study from the Pew Research Center reveals that most teachers, students and adults agree that race is a more appropriate classroom topic than whether a boy can become a girl.

On Thursday, the nonprofit research firm released a trio of national surveys conducted during the fall semester with thousands of adults, students and public K-12 teachers. They found that most participants in all three groups emphasized the importance of learning about racial inequality, but large numbers balked at the idea of discussing gender identity in class.

Of the teachers surveyed, 64% said students should learn that “the legacy of slavery still affects Black people in American society today,” and 60% opposed letting students opt out of learning about racism or racial inequality.

Half the teachers, including 62% of grade school teachers, said students should not learn in class that “a person’s gender can be different from or is determined by their sex assigned at birth,” and 48% favored letting parents opt out of LGBTQ lessons.

Among students ages 13 to 17 who encountered the topics in class, 38% said they were comfortable learning about race issues in school and 29% said the same about LGBTQ issues.

About 48% of teens said they would prefer not to learn about gender identity in school, and only a quarter desired to study whether biological sex could change.

Pew found that 54% of U.S. adults said parents should be able to opt their children out of LGBTQ lessons, and 34% said the same about race issues.

The surveys add “the voices of teachers and teens” to a growing national debate about how public schools should address the topics, said Juliana Horowitz, Pew’s associate director of research.

“While race and LGBTQ issues are often lumped together in discussions about the so-called culture wars in K-12 education, teachers, teens and the public see these topics differently,” Ms. Horowitz told The Washington Times.

She said she could not explain why students, adults and teachers were more comfortable with race than sexuality because the surveys “didn’t dig deeper.”

Among returning teachers surveyed, 56% said the topics of racism and racial inequality were raised “at least sometimes” in class during the 2022-2023 school year, and 68% said sexual orientation and gender identity “rarely or never came up.”

Reached for comment, some education experts said the findings confirm broader moral agreement among parents, children and teachers on the evils of racism and slavery than about LGBTQ rights disputes.

“Starting with the defeat of Nazism and running through the civil rights era, outright racism was stigmatized by American culture,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s hard to say the same thing about discrimination against gay or trans people.”

Others said the findings reflect where most Americans stand on the issues, regardless of liberal and conservative rhetoric.

“It is important to learn from these results so that schools are not unfairly and inadequately influenced by political discourses that are not steeped in reliable data,” said Tyrone Howard, an education professor specializing in racial equity at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Virginia Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, said the study demands increased state oversight of K-12 gender identity instruction. She noted that one-third of the teachers Pew surveyed opposed letting parents opt out of those lessons.

“Alternate paths to becoming a teacher should be opened up to ensure that the teaching workforce reflects broader society rather than the values of the progressive activists that populate colleges of education and teacher preparation programs,” Ms. Gentles said.

State policymakers have moved in recent years to ban or mandate liberal race and gender lessons.

Conservative states such as Texas and Florida have restricted instruction, calling race and sexuality “divisive topics.” Meanwhile, education officials in liberal states such as California have mandated lessons at every grade level and rebuffed legal challenges from parents.

In August, a federal judge in liberal-leaning Maryland dismissed a lawsuit brought by Muslim parents seeking to exempt their children from sexuality lessons featuring LGBTQ books in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Among the teachers Pew surveyed, 41% said such debates had “a negative impact” on their job performance, 71% said they didn’t have enough control over their subject matter and 58% said their state government had “too much influence.”

Even more said the federal government, local school boards and parents exercised too much influence.

In a statement emailed to The Washington Times, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, blamed “extremists” for conservative state laws restricting race and gender instruction. Her labor union opposes such legislation.

“This is a cynical strategy to undermine pluralism, diversity and tolerance and the freedom of students to learn by disrupting and destabilizing public schools and attacking public-school teachers,” Ms. Weingarten said.

Bequita V. Pegram, a professor of Black history at Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black public campus in Texas, said schools must teach racism and LGBTQ identity as a package deal.

“The intersectionality of race and gender in the classroom is important to creating a learning environment where a sense of belonging is present,” Ms. Pegram said.

Some conservative parental rights groups said the findings reflect a pushback on liberal K-12 curriculum.

“Teachers need to focus on teaching children to read, write and do math,” said Sheri Few, president of U.S. Parents Involved in Education.

Kimberly Fletcher, founder and president of Moms for America, said the findings reflect a “growing concern over the influence of gender ideology” in public schools.

Pew surveyed 2,531 public K-12 teachers through the Rand American Educator Panels from Oct. 17 though Nov. 14, 1,453 children ages 13 to 17 from Sept. 26 through Oct. 23 and 5,029 adults from Nov. 9-16.

Summarizing the findings, the company said Republican adults were “far more likely” than Democrats to say parents should be able to opt their children out of learning about race and gender in school.

Among teachers identifying as Democrats, 85% said students should learn that the legacy of slavery still affects the social positions of Black Americans. Just 35% of Republicans said the same.

Democratic teachers were also far more likely than Republicans — 53% to 5%, respectively — to say students should learn that gender identity can differ from biological sex.

The survey found that 33% of Black teens, 19% of White classmates and 17% of Hispanic students said they felt “uncomfortable” when racism came up in class.

Regarding gender identity, 38% of teen Democrats and 22% of Republican students said they felt comfortable discussing LGBTQ issues in the classroom.

According to education researchers, such divisions have made it harder for public schools to recruit and retain teachers and have driven more parents to consider home-schooling and private education.

“Given the already-meager compensation and prestige of teaching relative to other careers requiring the same level of education, these debates may further narrow the pool of potential teachers,” said Brendan Bertanen, a professor of education at the University of Virginia. “Many individuals pursue teaching for intrinsic or altruistic reasons, so things that make teachers enjoy their job less are likely to further harm the attractiveness of the profession.”