Police As "Helpers": Social Studies Content Standards And Dominant Narratives Of Law Enforcement

Curricular standards have the potential to elevate dominant ideology at the expense of marginalized perspectives. Recently, dominant narratives of police as a community benefit have been passionately challenged in the public sphere. Through a critical discourse analysis of social studies content standards of 50 states, we evaluate which narratives about law enforcement are reinforced in K-12 curricula. While police in marginalized communities are widely viewed as illegitimate, implicated in a long history of violence, and embedded in structures of oppression, we find that in social studies standards, they are conveyed as the opposite. The police are legitimate, only momentarily violent, and a functional institution abstracted from oppressive systems. We discuss the implications of this curricular dissonance for marginalized communities.