Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
DOI
10.1177/00220574251364731
Publication Title
Journal of Education
Volume
206
Issue
2
Pages
184-196
Abstract
In this case study, we apply understandings of social capital informed by Pierre Bourdieu and Nan Lin to analyze how seven educators used their capital to navigate book censorship incidents in K-12 public schools. Our findings indicate that participants often used social capital to meet expressive goals, such as seeking support from others, and less often to meet instrumental goals like advocating for policies and legislation in support of students’ intellectual freedom. These findings have implications for practitioners, school administrators, and university faculty, especially now as an unprecedented number of books is being challenged in public institutions throughout the U.S.
Rights
© 2025 The Authors.
Published under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.
Original Publication Citation
Sachdeva, D. E., & Kimmel, S. C. (2026). Educators' uses of social capital in K-12 book challenges. Journal of Education, 206(2), 184-196. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220574251364731
Repository Citation
Sachdeva, Danielle E. and Kimmel, Sue C., "Educators' Uses of Social Capital in K-12 Book Challenges" (2026). STEMPS Faculty Publications. 421.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/stemps_fac_pubs/421
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