Oklahoma is a Moving Train - On Trump and the (Impossible) Demand for "Neutral" Classrooms in a Red State

Oct 15, 2026

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The article examines how the divisive climate following Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election entered classrooms across U.S. education, especially in a red state context. Educators describe students’ fears and heightened tensions, including stark rifts between families aligned with Trump versus Clinton. It highlights how race, ethnicity, religion, gender/sexuality, and class are exposed through “neutral” pedagogy demands that are historically and structurally impossible. Drawing on survey responses, it analyzes pro-Trump, white nationalist, and minoritized students’ accounts, then proposes pedagogical strategies for engaging the political in Oklahoma.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Election impacts on schools and students

Oklahoma context and the impossibility of neutrality

Structural conservatism and marginalization

Survey-based analysis

Pro-Trump and white nationalist reactions

Effects on minoritized young people

Pedagogical strategies moving forward

UC Berkeley Berkeley Review of Education Title Oklahoma is a Moving Train: On Trump and the (Impossible) Demand for "Neutral"Classrooms in a Red State Permalink [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5x08c0qp](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5x08c0qp) Journal Berkeley Review of Education, 7(1) Authors Dyke, Erin Gordon, Sarah Job, Jennifer Publication Date 2017-01-01 [eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Available online at [http://escholarship.org/uc/ucbgse_bre](http://escholarship.org/uc/ucbgse_bre) Oklahoma is a Moving Train: On Trump and the (Impossible) Demand for “Neutral” Classrooms in a Red State Erin Dyke, Sarah Gordon, 1 and Jennifer Job Oklahoma State University The day directly following the election, I had 10% of my Hispanic population either in my office or in the counselor ’s office crying, believing that they were going to be deported. This is not because they watch how our president-elect speaks of them; it ’s because of how their fellow students are treating them. ––Oklahoma Elementary School Administrator and Graduate Student My third graders are on edge. . . .“I know my mom is lying so I feel better when she tells me it ’ll be okay,” wrote one African-American boy in his written response to the election results. . . . There is a complete rift between the students whose families support Trump and those that supported Clinton. One Trumpsupporter child even said,“Well my family is all White, so we’ll be okay,” as his classmates voiced their fears about being separated from bi-racial parents. The tension in my classroom is that of the weather before a major summer thunderstorm rolls in: You feel the pressure, know the rain and thunder are coming ; you feel prepared, yet you don’t know exactly what to do. ––Oklahoma Third-Grade Teacher and Graduate Student The reactions of the American people following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in November 2016 were similar to the campaign itself—divisive, conflicted, and acrimonious. Not surprisingly, these reactions have found their way into America’s classrooms, both in K–12 and higher-education institutions. A survey conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (2016) of more than 10,000 K–12 teachers, counselors, and administrators found that “the results of the election are having a profoundly negative impact on schools and students”(p. 6) . In our red state, the impacts of the rise of the white-supremacist alt-right on education contexts have been intense and have come to the forefront of conversation in the field. Educators at all levels are faced with navigating difficult dialogues that further expose the divisions of race, ethnicity, religion, gender/sexuality, and class in this country. In Oklahoma, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election was quite predictable. In the university, most of our white women students come from conservative towns and 1 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sarah Gordon, PhD, 245 Willard Hall, Whitehurst Lane, Stillwater, OK, 74074. Email: [sarah.gordon@okstate.edu](sarah.gordon@okstate.edu). Berkeley Review of Education Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 85–93 86 Dyke, Gordon, & Job areas of Oklahoma and Texas2 that are majority white or urban/suburban areas that are deeply segregated along race and class lines. In a mock presidential election for the undergraduate elementary education majors in a class, the overwhelming majority voted for Trump. Our students of color, queer students, non-Christian students, and students with critical or radical politics often feel hyper-marginalized in their classrooms. Here, extreme austerity in education, and all other public social supports and services, has meant that universities rely heavily on private donor funds and student tuition, and teacher education program enrollment has been declining as the working conditions and wages for

FAQs

What classroom effects does the election have according to the article?

Educators report profoundly negative impacts, including student fear and increased tension, with divisions that mirror broader social conflict after the election. Classroom experiences show heightened anxiety among minoritized students.

Why does the article argue that “neutral” classrooms are impossible?

It frames neutrality as historically and structurally unworkable in education, because teaching and learning are always political. In Oklahoma’s context, educators are pressured to perform neutrality while wider social supports and conditions intensify inequalities.

What does the essay’s analysis draw on?

The authors draw on their experiences and an anonymous department-wide survey. The survey collects perspectives from undergraduate education majors, teacher education faculty, and in-service teacher-graduate students about how the election affected their classrooms.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben