Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2440-7496

Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Applied Human Sciences

Department

Education

Committee Chair

Johnna Bolyard

Committee Co-Chair

Sharon Hayes

Committee Member

Melissa Sherfinski

Committee Member

Jessie Wilkerson

Abstract

This narrative inquiry dissertation investigates how conservative Discourse both shapes and is shaped by social studies teacher identity, agency, and the figured world of social studies education in West Virginia. Drawing on the storied lives of three early-career secondary social studies teachers, this study examines how conservative Discourse operates as a structuring force in the daily lives and practices of teachers working in an exceptionally conservative political and social landscape. Using Critical Narrative Analysis (Souto-Manning, 2014) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2014) as analytical frameworks, and figured worlds theory (Holland et al., 1998) as theoretical lens, this study reveals how conservative Discourse shapes what teachers believe, what they teach, and who they are becoming as social studies educators. Findings suggest that conservative Discourse does not require conscious ideological alignment to shape teacher identity and practice; rather it operates through the normalization of silence, comfort, and the dominant American narrative, which often is defined by conservative Discourse. Additionally, findings reveal that double-voicedness (Bakhtin, 1981; Brown et al., 2021) functions as a constitutive condition of teaching social studies in conservative spaces, requiring teachers to navigate the tension between their democratic professional commitments, such as supporting students as they learn to examine and consider multiple perspectives allowing for commitments to a more just world (NCSS, n.d.), and the authoritative conservative Discourse that characterizes the institutional context in which they work. Implications for practicing teachers, teacher education programs, and professional organization are discussed, with particular attention to the urgent need for critically oriented professional development and solidarity networks for social studies teachers navigating conservative landscapes. This study contributes to the scholarship by centering the voices of social studies teachers in West Virginia, a population and place largely absent from the literature at an unprecedented time in American history as we continue to see the turn toward authoritarian populism.

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