“You Can’t Be a Teacher and Not Follow Politics!”: Teacher-Legislators and Their Pathway to the State Capital

Abstract

Few studies have examined the growing trend of teacher-legislators, specifically teachers’ trajectory to elected office. Drawing on qualitative data and raced-gendered frameworks, this article examines how three female teachers of color in one Southwest state leveraged their teaching experiences to shape their policy priorities and how they navigated policy and political environments. The teacher-legislators in this article created counter-narratives on teachers and their abilities. Their experiences illustrate how teacher-legislators resisted and transformed state policies that affected urban students.