Linda McMahon, a sports entertainment mogul and longtime booster of President Trump, will face lawmakers on Thursday for the beginning of confirmation hearings as she seeks to lead the Department of Education.

A former executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Ms. McMahon has been tapped to run an agency in the middle of intense upheaval, whose very reasons for being have been challenged by the president. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he would like to smother, if not disassemble, the department, setting up a Senate hearing on Thursday with few parallels in American history.

Ms. McMahon will list off her qualifications to oversee the health of the country’s schools in the midst of open discussions in the White House about whether to close the department down. Less than a day before Ms. McMahon was scheduled to appear for the hearing, Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he wanted to see the department shuttered “immediately,” calling it “a big con job.”

Senators will almost certainly explore the confusion around what Ms. McMahon’s role might be if the administration plans to dissolve the department.

Ms. McMahon is expected to speak about the dismal results documented last month on a national exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed pervasive learning loss across the country’s public schools since the Covid-19 pandemic. Conservative think tanks and lawmakers have pointed to the results as evidence that the nation’s education system requires deep changes, and as justification for policies aimed at expanding access to private and religious schools.

She is also expected to speak about the priorities Mr. Trump has already set for the agency through executive orders in recent days. One of the orders focused on school choice, a topic she will most likely highlight. The administration’s other priorities revolve around cultural issues, such as gender, race and sexuality, and combating antisemitism.