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What is this thing called love? New discourses for understanding gay and lesbian youth
... Drawing on queer perspectives, this article explores youth's personal (and sometimes fluid) identifications with bi/pansexuality, and their experiences with heteronormativity and monosexism in the education system. Britzman (1997) contends that identities, such as those involving expressions of and adherence to heterosexuality, are constructed and thus, "No sexual identity, even the most normative, is automatic, authentic, easily assumed, or without negotiation and construction" (p. 186). ...
... 186). Her writing interrogates the claim that heterosexuality is a natural and normal sexual expression; instead, asserting that every identity is negotiated and constituted under social and political conditions, within particular histories (Britzman, 1995(Britzman, , 1997(Britzman, , 1998. Bi/pansexualities are no different in that youth re/de/construct their nonmonosexual identities throughout various times, places, and spaces (Callis, 2014). ...
... Most students learned with and from each other through GSA participation (see Lapointe, 2015b), which helped them re/discover queer sexualities and genders that are largely absent in formal education (see Britzman, 1997;Grace & Wells, 2015;Linville, 2009;Miller, 2014). Peyton expressed: I had known quite a few things about the LGBT2QIA community, however, this club has definitely expanded my knowledge immensely. ...
his article explores how Canadian youth who participate in Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) and teachers who advise them perceive and/or experience bi/pansexuality. Participants’ perspectives on, definitions of, and alignment with bi/pansexuality are examined as they unpack mis/understandings associated with nonmonosexual identities. For GSA members, bisexual and pansexual identity labels were not interchangeable terms; bisexuality was associated with the fe/male binary and pansexuality served as a personal contestation to this dichotomy. Despite these distinctions, both nonmonosexualities were marked by invisibility, mis/understandings, and prejudice in school. Findings emphasize how students’ knowledge of sexual diversity and fluidity was more nuanced than their GSA advisors due to personal online research. GSA participation enabled bi/pansexual knowledge exchange among students and teachers, and promoted overall understandings of bi/pansexualities. Although GSA involvement facilitated opportunities to discuss bi/pansexualities, this article also highlights how an effort should be made to integrate bi/pansexual content in these clubs.
... The teacher educator may be at risk of perpetuating such perspectives, including the discourse 'that ignorance is a passive lack that can be replaced with knowledge, which will in turn replace hatred with tolerance' (Martindale, 1997, p. 66). However, this course deals with social inequities primarily through students' understandings of the construction of one's subjectivity, agency, and the knowledge/ power nexus constituted in discourse (Foucault, 1974;Giroux, 1992;Davies, 1996;Britzman, 1997;Smith et al., 1997). ...
... Sexuality is viewed as a social relation that is uid, unstable, complex, contradictory, and culturally and historically constructed. It is considered not to be a 'given', but negotiated socially and politically within speci c historical contexts (Britzman, 1997). Intersections of sexuality with other aspects of one's identity, for example, gender, race, and class, are emphasised, highlighting the importance of understanding that sexuality is never experienced in isolation from the whole subject. ...
... Sexuality, on the contrary, is considered in a different light by many students, and does not have the same recognition or sense of legitimacy about it as many other issues that are dealt with in this course. This is primarily the results of prevailing moral and religious discourses that mythologise the gay/lesbian as among others, paedophilic, hypersexualised, predatory and mentally unstable who aim to undermine dominant heterosexual family values (Hinson, 1996;Britzman, 1997). These discourses are further reinforced through legislation that overtly and covertly discriminates against the sexualized 'other' (George, 1997). ...
This paper reflects on the issues that arise when pre-service teachers are introduced to lesbian and gay concerns in schooling. It explores pre-service teachers' resistance and their commonly espoused attitudes and beliefs, as well as the difficulties faced by teacher educators in challenging the myths, stereotypes and biases that exist in university classrooms. The paper highlights the perceived (ir)relevance of gay and lesbian issues to pre-service teachers, the belief that sexuality is not the concern of teachers or schools, pre-service teachers' assumption of 'compulsory heterosexuality' in both the university and school classrooms, and the pathologising of perceived lesbian and gay identities as the cause of individual discrimination. Such beliefs may pose numerous pedagogical, professional and personal concerns for the teacher educator. The need to address gay and lesbian issues with pre-service teachers is paramount in the light of the homophobic violence, vilification and discrimination experienced by individuals in schools.
... Heterosexism, the system that asserts all identities outside of heterosexuality (real and perceived) are abnormal (Britzman, 1997;Jones & Abes, 2013) is the overarching system that allows for monosexism and biphobia to persist. Monosexism, the extension of heterosexism that promotes a strictly gay/straight binary (Jourian, 2015), and its manifestation biphobia, the prejudice and oppression leveled against people who do not identify within the straight/gay binary (Eliason, 2000), permeates both heterosexual (Herek, 2002;Sarno & Wright, 2013) and LGBTQ communities (Balsam & Mohr, 2007;Hemmings, 2002;Mitchell et al., 2015;Mohr & Rochlen, 1999). ...
... A power-conscious framework asks: What larger systems of power and oppression are at play that necessitates the need for student activism in the first place? Heterosexism, the system that stigmatizes all identities outside of heterosexuality as abnormal (Britzman, 1997;Jones & Abes, 2013) continues to create hostile and unwelcoming campus environments for many queer-and trans-spectrum students. Many minoritized students, including queer-and trans-spectrum students, feel an obligation to engage in activist work to improve their experiences and the experiences of future students who also hold these identities. ...
Queer- and trans-spectrum students continue to struggle with hostile campus climates. As a result, queer- and trans-spectrum students may engage in on-campus activism to push their institutions to address cisheterosexism on campus. Bisexual students experience invisibility, marginalization, and exclusion in both heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) spaces. Though not surprising that bisexual students experience hostility within predominantly heterosexual spaces, their challenges within LGBTQ campus spaces are especially concerning considering these spaces should be inclusive and supportive of their bisexual identity. The purpose of this study is to examine bisexual college students’ experiences engaging in identity-based activism within LGBTQ campus spaces. Based on interviews with bisexual college students who participated in LGBTQ activism on campus, I considered two questions. First, what were the costs of engaging in LGBTQ activism as bisexual students within LGBTQ campus spaces? Second, considering these costs, what sustained them in continuing their activist work within LGBTQ campus spaces? The findings of this study revealed that most participants experienced at least one of the three components symptomatic of activist burnout as a result of their engagement in LGBTQ campus spaces. Participants shared their challenges engaging in these spaces stemmed from two main causes: (a) identifying as bisexual and experiencing biphobia within LGBTQ campus spaces and (b) being overcommitted to their activist work within LGBTQ campus spaces.
... When educators justify their (hetero/cis)normative pedagogical practices by claiming ignorance (i.e., they simply do not know enough about LGBTQ topics to include them in their teaching) they inherently position heterosexuality as superior to queer sexualities, and experiences. Britzman (1997) further explains Segewick's conceptualization of ignorance by troubling the ignorance/knowledge binary: ...
... Here Britzman argues that ignorances are embedded in knowledge because heterosexuality is portrayed as homosexuality's naturally-occurring counterpart; thus, from Segewick (1990)'s and Britzman (1997Britzman ( , 1998)'s vantage point, ignorance is more accurately described as willfully ignoring perspectives that threaten to dismantle heteronormative regimes, and compulsory heterosexuality. Unfortunately, schools in particular are sites where compulsory heterosexuality is valorized and enforced via daily interactions, curricula, policies, and pedagogy to the determinant of queer knowledge (i.e., non-normative ways of learning, and knowing). ...
This study examines what Social Studies teachers can learn from Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) in terms of the content that club members examine and the queer pedagogical approaches they employ. Findings reveal how educators can borrow students' queer teaching and learning practices, and integrate their insights within Social Studies classrooms to disrupt (hetero/cis)normativity. Data derived from semi-structured interviews with five Canadian high school GSA members were analyzed using the queer theoretical and pedagogical insights of Britzman (1995. Educational Theory, 45(2), 151–165; 1998. Lost subjects, contested objects: towards a psychoanalytic inquiry of learning. New York, NY: State Excellence in Education, 38(2), 123–134). Three prominent themes emerged: (1) GSAs' queer educative role compensated for a void in LGBTQ curricular content. Although LGBTQ-inclusive content was evident within some Social Studies, English, and French classes participants called for their teachers to integrate more content that disrupts homophobia and transphobia; (2) the personal characteristics of GSA members provide insight into how Social Studies educators can mirror students' drive to learn about and challenge preconceived and (hetero/cis)normative assumptions/beliefs; and (3) GSA's queer educational approaches differed from the (hetero/cis)normative teaching and learning practices of their educators. GSA members engaged in student-led dialogue, and spearheaded queer initiatives and events to contest anti-LGBTQ attitudes at their schools. It is argued that when educators follow the lead of GSA members they may enhance their approach to and engagement with LGBTQ topics, and expand the queer pedagogical potential of the Social Studies.
... When educators justify their (hetero/cis)normative pedagogical practices by claiming ignorance (i.e., they simply do not know enough about LGBTQ topics to include them in their teaching) they inherently position heterosexuality as superior to queer sexualities, and experiences. Britzman (1997) further explains Segewick's conceptualization of ignorance by troubling the ignorance/knowledge binary: ...
... Here Britzman argues that ignorances are embedded in knowledge because heterosexuality is portrayed as homosexuality's naturally-occurring counterpart; thus, from Segewick (1990)'s and Britzman (1997Britzman ( , 1998)'s vantage point, ignorance is more accurately described as willfully ignoring perspectives that threaten to dismantle heteronormative regimes, and compulsory heterosexuality. Unfortunately, schools in particular are sites where compulsory heterosexuality is valorized and enforced via daily interactions, curricula, policies, and pedagogy to the determinant of queer knowledge (i.e., non-normative ways of learning, and knowing). ...
This study examines what Social Studies teachers can learn from Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) in terms of the content that club members examine and the queer pedagogical approaches they employ. Findings reveal how educators can borrow students’ queer teaching and learning practices, and integrate their insights within Social Studies classrooms to disrupt (hetero/cis)normativity. Data derived from semi-structured interviews with five Canadian high school GSA members were analyzed using the queer theoretical and pedagogical insights of Britzman (1995. Educational Theory, 45(2), 151–165; 1998. Lost subjects, contested objects: towards a psychoanalytic inquiry of learning. New York, NY: State University of New York Press), Sedgwick (1990/2008. Epistemology of the closet. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.), and Shlasko (2005 Equity & Excellence in Education, 38(2), 123–134). Three prominent themes emerged: (1) GSAs’ queer educative role compensated for a void in LGBTQ curricular content. Although LGBTQ-inclusive content was evident within some Social Studies, English, and French classes participants called for their teachers to integrate more content that disrupts homophobia and transphobia; (2) the personal characteristics of GSA members provide insight into how Social Studies educators can mirror students’ drive to learn about and challenge preconceived and (hetero/cis)normative assumptions/beliefs; and (3) GSA’s queer educational approaches differed from the (hetero/cis)normative teaching and learning practices of their educators. GSA members engaged in student-led dialogue, and spearheaded queer initiatives and events to contest anti-LGBTQ attitudes at their schools. It is argued that when educators follow the lead of GSA members they may enhance their approach to and engagement with LGBTQ topics, and expand the queer pedagogical potential of the Social Studies.
... Rather, it is the suspension of these classifications (Pinar, 1998). Queer theorists recognize sexual and gender identities as social, multiple, variable, shifting, and fluid; and while they allow for movement among such identity categories (Britzman, 1997), they advocate for movement outside of these categories as well. By rejecting categories of identity, queer theorists interrogate and disrupt notions of normal, with particular respect to sexuality and gender (Tierney & Dilley, 1998), but not limited to these identities. ...
... In the context of queer theory, such standards are at least interrogated and more likely disrupted, focusing specifically on the disruption of sexual and gender norms, such as the binary between heterosexual and homosexual or that between man and woman. This goal and focus are grounded in the understanding of sexual and gender identities as social, multiple, variable, shifting, and fluid and the expectation of movement among and beyond such identity categories (Britzman, 1997). Queer theorists' disruptions of norms are not limited to sexuality and gender, though. ...
This paper retrospectively examines a collection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* (LGBT)-themed books discussed by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) and ally students and teachers across 3 years of an out-of-school reading group. Through a textual content analysis of a sub-set of these books, we examine what queer literature looks like, identifying qualities it shares, and considering particular resources and possibilities it offers readers that are distinct from the broader category of LGBT-themed literature.
... Within positive schools where equity-based anti-homophobia policy is offered as a remedy for homophobia, the " equality " as " equity " equation creates a learning space where only a particular version of queer identities—those that are just like heterosexual— are possible. In this way, the yoking of homophobia discourse to equity-based antihomophobia policy requires, and thus, produces normative knowledge claims about queer lives (Britzman, 1997; Pinar, 1998). Within the context of positive, equity-based schools homophobia is, once again, located within the psyche and knowledge of individual students and educators. ...
... The use of complete and unbiased knowledge often (re)presents queer sexualities as " naturally " emergent fundamental Truths about the self (Kopelson, 2002). This (re)presentation ignores the fact that every sexual identity—lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight—is unstable and shifting, and constitutes a social relation (Britzman, 1997). Thus, equity-based anti-homophobia policy fails to disrupt the heterosexual/homosexual binary (Bryson & de Castell, 1997b). ...
This article introduces a conceptual framework for thinking about the development of anti‐homophobia education in teacher education and schooling contexts. We bring the safe, positive, and queering moments framework to bear on three distinct anti‐homophobia education practices: coming out stories, homophobic name‐calling analysis, and Pride Week activities. Our analysis of these education practices through the lens of our conceptual framework illuminates its usefulness for thinking through both the intent and impact of anti‐homophobia education within classrooms. Importantly, our analysis also reveals that within a classroom of students who are taking up anti‐homophobia education in different ways any one moment can be all three—safe, positive, and queering. We advocate an approach to anti‐homophobia education that seeks change through the creation of all three moments, and that locates anti‐homophobia strategies on points in a constellation of “safe moments”, “positive moments”, and “queering moments”.
... When asked how an ideal mainstream ESOL classroom might address social issues, responses supported a queer-inquiry approach to sexual literacy. By sexual literacy, Nelson (2009) meant knowledge of how to talk about sexuality and representations of sexuality in the world, and how various discourses serve to disproportionately centralize, marginalize, silence, or amplify the experiences of people of all sexualities (Alexander & Banks, 2004;Britzman, 1997). Queer inquiry refers to a pedagogical approach in which these discourses are analyzed and problematized. ...
Research has indicated that heteronormativity in ESOL classrooms may prevent lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) students from producing meaningful language output and negotiating their identities in new social contexts (e.g., Liddicoat, 2009). This study aimed to understand (a) how LGBTQ+ students perceive the framing of sexual diversity in classrooms and (b) the subsequent effects on their language and identity development. Qualitative interviews with 4 LGBTQ+ former ESOL learners in the San Francisco Bay Area were conducted and thematically coded. Results indicated that the strong desire for professional advancement dovetailed with the desire to affirm an LGBTQ+ identity, yet the ESOL classroom provided few opportunities to construct an LGBTQ+ identity. However, expertly facilitated LGBTQ+ content provided numerous benefits to learners. Teachers should reframe classroom discussions to be maximally inclusive and should choose an approach to discussing LGBTQ+ content that allows students to empower themselves.
... Queer theory is the disruption of norms, especially the disruption of sexual and gender norms. Queer theorists view sexual and gender identities as social, multiple, variable, shifting and fluid, and there is an expectation of movement among and beyond these identity categories (Britzman 1997). The use of queer theory as a lens invites students and teachers to critically examine these various identities in the pedagogical practice. ...
This study explored what university students in Ecuador learned in a first ever LGBTQ Literature course, as well as if the course helped to build LGBTQ allies. The research explores not only the pedagogical strategies used in the development of and during the course, but also proposes a LBGTQ+ ally development teaching framework that can guide teachers in developing curricula around LGBTQ literature that will not only work against homophobia, heteronormativity, and heterosexism, but also provide teachers with an ultimate goal of developing LGBTQ allies in their schools. The results of the qualitative phenomenological research suggest that students not only learned by reading LGBTQ Literature, they also learned to become active, to use their voices, to embrace themselves and others, and to become stronger LGBTQ allies.
... Additionally, critical methodologies encourage practical change that advances social justice within higher education institutions (Crotty, 1998;Kincheloe & McLaren, 2000). I used queer theory in particular due to its ability to challenge heterosexism, the assertion that identities outside of heterosexuality (real and perceived) are abnormal (Britzman, 1997;Jones & Abes, 2013;Warner, 1991), and its connection to other systems of oppression. As a result of this critical analytical lens, I identified the ways participants felt unsupported both interpersonally by peers and institutionally by formal LGBTQ campus spaces supposedly committed to supporting queer/trans-spectrum students. ...
Studies on queer/trans-spectrum students’ campus experiences show that colleges and universities continue to be hostile and unwelcoming for them despite the implementation of programs and initiatives to improve campus climate. Bisexual students, however, face a unique type of marginalization within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, with research on their experiences in higher education suggesting they are not safe from marginalization even in what should be safe LGBTQ campus spaces. This study examines the experiences of 9 bisexual students engaged in LGBTQ campus spaces to address the following research questions: First, to what degree did bisexual students experience bisexual-specific stress within LGBTQ campus spaces? Second, how, if at all, did bisexual-specific stress impact their participation in these LGBTQ campus spaces? The findings of this study revealed that all participants experienced bisexual-specific stress within LGBTQ campus spaces, and as a result of bisexual-specific stress and lack of support in addressing these issues, participants shared negative impacts on their participation within LGBTQ campus spaces. Understanding the challenges bisexual students experience within LGBTQ campus spaces can help student affairs professionals and others working with queer/trans-spectrum students work toward creating more bisexual-inclusive LGBTQ campus spaces.
... For example, Metro-Roland (2011) argues that teachers develop strategies based on dominant gender and sexuality discourses in school and try not to disturb widely accepted sexuality norms when teaching about sexuality. Britzman (1997) states that teachers develop an understanding of sexuality which often perpetuates but sometimes contradicts the policing of hegemonic discourses of heteronormativity in classroom practices. ...
As the school National Science Curriculum in Turkey includes topics such as human reproduction, hormonal growth and adolescent health, elementary school science teachers (ESTs) are required to teach sexuality-related topics to their students. However, studies have shown that teachers in Turkey, like their counterparts in many other countries, have little or no information about how to approach such matters and feel constrained from talking about sexuality in the classroom because sexuality has traditionally been perceived as a taboo. Informed by Foucault’s analysis of sexuality and power, this study examined how five ESTs responded to problem scenarios related to teaching and discussing sexuality-related topics in the classroom. Findings suggest that while ESTs did discuss, directly or indirectly, sexuality-related topics and issues in their classrooms, their pedagogical strategies resonated with patriarchal discourses and were influenced by a fear of the serious consequences they might face by troubling the social norms and taboos currently surrounding sexuality in Turkey today.
... There is an implied learner homogeneity as heterosexual and cisgendered. The routine coding of students as unquestionably heterosexual or as having no sexual identity in English language classrooms has long been observed (e.g., Britzman, 1997) and the examples above show that this practice continues to pervade classrooms in UK schools with the effect of making LGBT+ students feel excluded and experiencing school as overwhelmingly negative. Figure 7 shows the distribution of positive and negative markers of the three main sub-categories of APPRECIATION. ...
This paper examines linguistic practices of inclusion and exclusion relating to sexual orientation and sexual identity as they surface in the context of language education and multilingual contexts. I argue that queer linguistics can provide a helpful theoretical framework for examining how normative and non‐normative constructions of sexual identity are enacted inscribed in language practices in classrooms, and how these language practices may effect particular discourses of sexuality. I examine extracts of interview data with young people analysed using appraisal analysis. The analysis focuses on how language works as a form of social practice which can include and exclude sexual identities in classroom settings.
... Thus, the principle of queer theory which claims an integral and definitional relationship between gender and sexuality is of central importance to the study of language and sexuality and its application to the school context. Britzman (1997) additionally argues that students are routinely coded as heterosexual, or as having no sexual identity in English language classrooms. Britzman argues that this absence contributes to a pervasive discourse of homophobia. ...
Studies which examine intersections between language, sexuality, and education are relatively few in number and this field is still arguably in its relative infancy. With a few exceptions, what much current work on sexuality and education lacks is an explicit focus on the role that language plays in constructing discourses around sexuality in schools. And while work in the field of language and sexuality has examined the diverse ways in which sexual identity can be linguistically enacted, little of this research has yet been applied to educational settings. In the work on language, sexuality, and education that does exist, most major contributions fall into two broad areas: those which focus on discriminatory language practices relating to sexuality (especially homophobic language); and those which investigate more broadly the discursive construction of sexuality in educational settings. Within the first area, a number of studies have examined homophobic language use in schools and other educational settings. Some work has examined how homophobia is not always overt and is more often construed as a discursive effect of silence and invisibility. In work which examines the discursive construction of sexuality in educational contexts, some use has been made of narrative analysis and classroom interaction analysis. This chapter provides an overview of work within these two broad areas. Alongside work which focuses on schools, there is a growing body of work which examines the discursive construction of sexual identities specifically within language education (especially English language education). This chapter also provides an overview of work which examines language and sexuality in these different educational settings.
... Thus, the principle of queer theory which claims an integral and definitional relationship between gender and sexuality is of central importance to the study of language and sexuality and its application to the school context. Britzman (1997) additionally argues that students are routinely coded as heterosexual, or as having no sexual identity in English language classrooms. Britzman argues that this absence contributes to a pervasive discourse of homophobia. ...
Studies which examine intersections between language, sexuality, and education are relatively few in number and this field is still arguably in its relative infancy. With a few exceptions, what much current work on sexuality and education lacks is an explicit focus on the role that language plays in constructing discourses around sexuality in schools. And while work in the field of language and sexuality has examined the diverse ways in which sexual identity can be linguistically enacted, little of this research has yet been applied to educational settings. In the work on language, sexuality, and education that does exist, most major contributions fall into two broad areas: those which focus on discriminatory language practices relating to sexuality (especially homophobic language); and those which investigate more broadly the discursive construction of sexuality in educational settings. Within the first area, a number of studies have examined homophobic language use in schools and other educational settings. Some work has examined how homophobia is not always overt and is more often construed as a discursive effect of silence and invisibility. In work which examines the discursive construction of sexuality in educational contexts, some use has been made of narrative analysis and classroom interaction analysis. This chapter provides an overview of work within these two broad areas. Alongside work which focuses on schools, there is a growing body of work which examines the discursive construction of sexual identities specifically within language education (especially English language education). This chapter also provides an overview of work which examines language and sexuality in these different educational settings.
... To create this conceptualization, they applied several tenants of queer theory, specifically intersectionality and postmodernism, in an effort to capture the complexity of the meaning of a core self in a multiple identities model. Their efforts led to a rethinking of what a "core" sense of self actually meant, since some queer theorists argued against the very notion that identity can be defined or that a core identity even exists (Britzman, 1997) and that identity is comprised of fluid differences, not a unified essence (Fuss, 1989). Jones and McEwen's theory is used to explain how students define themselves within particular social contexts. ...
In this research report the author details a phenomenological study documenting identity development in student veterans making the transition from active military service to higher education. This study took place at a doctoral granting proprietary university with a significant veteran population and consisted of in-depth interviews. This analysis illustrates how student veterans construct and achieve more complex senses of self that incorporate their experiences as service member, veteran, and civilian student into a coherent identity.
... Queer moments mirror the type of antihomophobic education both Britzman (1995Britzman ( , 1998 and Linville (2009) call for because they disrupt heteronormative cultural codes. Queer moments/queer theory can be employed to critique safe and positive schools literature, which individualizes antigay actions and naturalizes and upholds identity categories (Goldstein et al., 2007; see also Britzman, 1995Britzman, , 1997Britzman, , 1998. GSAs can provide significant opportunities for safe and positive moments, but they also have the capacity to function as queer pedagogical spaces in schools. ...
This qualitative study captures the experiences of four straight allies’ and one gay youth involvement in gay–straight alliances (GSAs) at their Ontario, Canada, high schools. Participants’ motivations for becoming GSA members and their roles as allies are examined. Queer theoretical perspectives, as espoused by Britzman (1995, 1998) and Linville (2009), underpin the study's purpose, design, and data analysis. Queer theory was employed to both problematize the heteronormative underpinnings of education and to critique the stand-alone nature of GSAs. Safety, support, education, and advocacy—to varying degrees—were identified as the roles of participants’ GSAs. Straight allies joined GSAs because they wanted to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people and advocate for their human rights. They developed queer-positive attitudes through befriending and/or empathizing with LGBTQ people and from their experiences with being “Othered.” Findings suggest that allies felt undue pressure to address homophobic language and were compelled to combat LGBTQ-based inequities in school and society. Particular attention was also paid to exploring how two straight male allies were cultivating new forms of masculinity that refrain from denigrating LGBTQ people.
... Her statement supports an educational approach which critiques the repetition of normalcy as pedagogy (see Britzman 1995). In so much as the formal curriculum does not adequately incorporate queer knowledge (Britzman 1997;Currie, Mayberry, and Chenneville 2012) and sex education and sexual health, in particular, fail to be LGBTQ-inclusive (Formby 2011;Simon and Daneback 2013), GSAs can aim to fill the gaps. Knowledge generated within GSAs and transmitted to the wider school community, together with political action by club members, may help challenge prejudice and discrimination directed at LGBTQ people in schooling as well as in the broader heteronormative society. ...
This paper offers an examination of gay–straight alliance (GSA) members’
engagement with sex education, sexual health, and prejudice and discrimination in
Canadian public high schools. It explores how five students’ (four straight and one gay-identifying)
participation in GSAs served as a springboard for learning about and
challenging stereotypes; prejudice; and discrimination directed at lesbian, gay,
bisexual, trans, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people. Queer theory provided the
theoretical underpinnings of the study, offering a lens through which to examine the
heteronormative underpinnings of education, and a means to interpret how
homophobic discourses circulate in school and society. Empirical data were obtained
via observational notes from visits to nine GSAs and semi-structured interviews with
the five GSA members. Findings suggest that straight allies can use their heterosexual
privilege to address LGBTQ issues with their peers. Through GSA involvement,
participants learned to interrogate and combat stereotypes about LGBTQ people and
HIV-related myths, as well as to engage in queer discussion and political action.
... r. Unfortunately, disclosing one's sexual identity can be such a shock during a conversation that the receiver of this information is not aware of the messages s/he sends in terms of their reaction and word choices. These are mixed messages that may seem well intentioned. But because of heterosexism and homophobia, they condemn rather than support. Britzman (1997) noted that the contours of academic and social discourse commonly used to School Leadership and Management 83 unpack/debate the origins of sexual identity lead us to places where there is no hope of resolution. She states: If educators are to be effective working with youth, they must begin to take a more universalizing view of sexualit ...
In this article, the authors explore issues of identity, sexual orientation, gender identity, educational leadership and leadership preparation. We discuss professional norms, including attire, and in turn how professional norms might construct panopticons, identity and US public school leadership. We conclude by exploring a consciously queer approach to educational leadership preparation.
The problematics of social and academic participation for gender diverse and lgbtqi + youth in school communities is highlighted by the stigmatising relational dynamics which often become the dominant narrative in educational domains. This paper discusses the creation of a critical literacy/media product which arose from a year 7 level curriculum project in which students were invited to seek solutions to address a problem about which they cared. In 2021 a group of Australian secondary school students undertook an investigation into gender diversity and lgbtqi + inclusion. In partnership with teachers and pre-service teachers they co-designed an animation on gender identity opening up wider discussion of ‘orientations and dispositions’ and generating critique around issues of social justice, democracy, equality and inclusion in and out of the classroom.
This handbook seeks to present a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of social justice in music education. Contributors from around the world interrogate the complex, multidimensional, and often contested nature of social justice and music education from a variety of philosophical, political, social, and cultural perspectives. Although many chapters take as their starting point an analysis of how dominant political, educational, and musical ideologies serve to construct and sustain inequities and undemocratic practices, authors also identify practices that seek to promote socially just pedagogy and approaches to music education. These range from those taking place in formal and informal music education contexts, including schools and community settings, to music projects undertaken in sites of repression and conflict, such as prisons, refugee camps, and areas of acute social disadvantage or political oppression. In a volume of this scope, there are inevitably many recurring themes. However, common to many of those music education practices that seek to create more democratic and equitable spaces for musical learning is a belief in the centrality of student agency and a commitment to the too-often silenced voice of the learner. To that end, this Handbook challenges music educators to reflect critically on their own beliefs and pedagogical practices so that they may contribute more effectively to the creation and maintenance of music learning environs and programs in which matters of access and equity are continually brought to the fore.
As societies move further toward equal rights for GLBT people, new models of more plural and diverse families are emerging. According to “queer pedagogy”, schools must show and address different forms of family relationships if they wish to reflect the society we live in and contribute to a world that is more respectful of differences. In this study, texts portraying this family diversity were introduced into language and literature classes. Then, students’ attitudes toward families formed by two fathers, two mothers or one GLBT parent were evaluated. The survey sample consisted of a total of 77 students, of which 31 students belonged to the experimental group and 46 were allocated in the control group. The results indicate that participants who read texts portraying diverse families were more likely to accept affective, sexual and gender diversity in their families.
Sexual culture(s) are an active presence in the shaping of school relations, and LGBTQ issues have long been recognized as a dangerous form of knowledge in school settings. Queer issues in educational domains quickly attract surveillance and have historically often been aggressively prosecuted and silence enforced. This paper examines the intersections of straight allies in promoting an LGBTQ visibility and agency in Australian secondary schools. Drawing on interviews with “straight”-identified secondary students, a narrative methodology was utilized to explore the presence of student allies for making safe schools. Drawing on straight secondary students' responses to LGBTQ issues in their schools, firsthand accounts of intervening in heteronorming school cultures focus on experiences of being an ally to address LGBTQ inclusivity in Australian secondary schools.
One way of queering teaching, and assessment as a part of teaching, is to draw on various theories that simultaneously make sense with and make trouble for one’s teaching. Queer theory can provoke the queering, challenging how a teacher approaches seemingly axiomatic assumptions about social identities and the expected behaviors of those exhibiting those identities. In this chapter, we focus on queering assessment, and the assessment of student writing through turning to a piece of student writing authored by Justine, an African American lesbian, during her junior year in an urban, arts-based magnet high school. We draw on New Literacy Studies in troubling the approaches we take toward defining “good” writing. Because of the gendered and racial identities Justine claimed, we also turned to feminism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) to make sense of and complicate our understanding of her writing, in terms of both content and form.
This article explores the utilization of the theory of a Black ratchet imagination as a methodological perspective to examine the multiple intersections of Black and queer identity constructions within the space of hip hop. In particular, I argue for the need of a methodological lens that recognizes, appreciates, and struggles with the fluidity, imagination, precarity, agency, and knowledge production of Black queer youth who create and consume hip hop. As an example, I apply a Black ratchet imagination methodological perspective to an examination of New Orleans’s bounce culture. I conclude the article by underscoring the need for humanizing, hyper-local, and messy theoretical frameworks that provide further context for research investigating Black queer youth whose identities are informed by the culture of hip hop.
A look at three YA series using feminist theory. Teaching applications for the secondary classroom are discussed.
Queering as a verb, “to queer”, is employed here, in order to discuss the possibilities of queering the heteronormativity and discourse of normalcy within educational settings. In this chapter “queering” is approached in three ways: Firstly, by taking a reflexive turn, focusing on teaching practices. Secondly, by presenting various strategies which LGBTQ+ students adopted to carve out a queer space and disturb the dominant discourse of sexuality and gender. And thirdly by focusing on the classroom, where empirical examples are given of how the discourse of normalcy within the curriculum can be transgressed. In that sense, to queer involves a critical approach to teaching and classroom work. Moreover, the chapter engages with what can be done in order to address teacher knowledge about these issues.
Key concepts and theories are introduced in this chapter. It discusses first the theoretical foundations of the research in relation to schooling sexualities and gendered bodies. It then proceeds to address the spatial turn in sociology, outlining various theories on space and spatiality, with regard to schooling and schools. Queer theory is also discussed as it forms the ontological and analytical perspective of the research presented in the book. An overview of the significant empirical literature and what it has to offer as well as its limits will also be provided. Thus, in many ways, this chapter frames the remainder of the book.
In this chapter, the critical work of negotiating and remaking identity during adolescence is revisited. In telling a story of discovering how popular culture, and in particular album covers and their cherished contents, became a significant modality through which I came to express and articulate sexual subjectivity, I reflectively gaze upon my teenage years to narrate how my interior being became increasingly sustained by my collection of 12-inch vinyl long-player records.
This chapter introduces a framework for engaging literacy “queerly” by introducing a queer literacy framework (QLF). The QLF concomitantly pivots adolescence/ts toward (a)gender and (a)sexuality self-determination in order to promote a continuum for (a)gender and (a)sexuality justice. The QLF illustrates ten key principles for a queer literacy framework, describes subsequent commitments by teachers, and provides concrete considerations for its future autonomy.
Studies show that many school of education faculty are uncomfortable with or lack knowledge about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues, yet are more prone to include LGBTQ content in their courses with institutional supports. Facing accreditation standards that include cultural competency requirements, schools of education have a responsibility to teach their students about LGBTQ issues in education. This national online survey of deans of schools of education gathered data from 279 deans from colleges and universities across the USA, including private, public, faith-based, and historically black colleges and universities. This chapter discusses the survey results, highlighting the need to bring queer studies into schools of education, to help break the cycle of marginalization and invisibility of LGBTQ issues in schools of education.
It was not unusual for me, a white woman in my thirties, to walk up to the red brick row home in the middle of a block on a two-lane, one-way street in Center City, Philadelphia and see a group of young people hanging out on the four cement steps with wrought-iron railings on both sides and, while walking up the steps, hear one of them say to another, “‘Sup cunt?” Typically, although not always, it was a Black young man performing femininity (Butler 1989) or a male-to-female transgendered person offering such a greeting. The first few times I heard this I probably did not understand what was being said, but once I understood, I bristled at the use of the word “cunt.” Immediately I wanted to tell youth not to use that word because it insulted women. Over time, through many conversations with the youth, I came to understand the complicated ways in which these youth used this and many other words—words and ways of using them that together we came to call “Gaybonics.”
Miller deepens the book’s focus about how to teach, affirm, and recognize trans* and gender creative youth by connecting it to and introducing the Queer Literacy Framework (QLF), and how authors in the book mediated lessons by drawing upon aspects of the QLF. Miller historicizes the production of gender and details its legacy of prejudicial and biased views. Miller then provides an overview of the importance of the disruption of gender production in school and society writ large and discusses how the role of fostering external and internal safety in classrooms can promote and instantiate a trans* and gender creative legibility for self and other. Ending with sample strategies of applications using the QLF, Miller demonstrates how recognition of self and other can lead to (a)gender self-determination and promote justice in schools and society writ large.
To date, girls and women are significantly underrepresented in computer science and technology. Concerns about this underrepresentation have sparked a wealth of educational efforts to promote girls’ participation in computing, but these programs have demonstrated limited impact on reversing current trends. This paper argues that this is, in part, because these programs tend to take a narrow view of their purpose, ignoring important factors that shape girls’ identities and education/career choices - not least broader narratives around gender, race, and sexuality. This paper focuses on the issue of sexuality - that is, how sexuality discourses are shaping a diverse range of girls’ experiences with technology, their perceptions of themselves, and their ultimate educational and career choices. The paper makes the case for considering these important connections, bringing together research in two disparate areas: (1) sociological research in gender, diversity, and technology and (2) critical cultural studies research in youth sexualities and schooling.
Sydney, in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, is a cosmopolitan metropolis. In the past three decades, there has been a slowly developing, but increasingly liberal climate towards sexual diversity across the nation, particularly in cities. Changes to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act in the 1980s made it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation in public institutions and more recent amendments to federal legislation in the areas of superannuation, taxation laws and so forth have enhanced access and equity to homosexuals not previously realised. Additionally, over the last decade, there has been greater visibility of sexual and gender diversity in popular culture and in the media — a virtual ‘mainstreaming’ of traditionally ‘Othered’ sexual subjects.
Educating girls is one of the most significant yet problematic developments of the last 150 years. A girl, in the process of her schooling, learns to layer the messages of a logo/androcentric culture over the insights born of her lived experience, muffling and silencing the still, small voice within. The ubiquitous, aggressively marketed series romances that a girl reads in adolescence are read not as mere fantasy or entertainment but as a road map for life. This compelling romantic ideology channels girls narrowly toward heterosexuality and marriage. The high price that may be paid for investing in the promise of romance is examined against the backdrop of Virginia Woolf's understanding that intellectual freedom depends on material things. The educated woman who teaches comes to her profession many times divided against herself. She is expected to teach the very values her life may have taught her to question. The solution to these problems (if there can be said to be one), is not simply a matter of changing the stories girls read. In a rapidly changing social world the romance is increasingly fundamental to the maintenance of order, critically embedded in the workings of the economy, and a pathway into the compelling archetypal world. Nonetheless, women teaching in a girl-poisoning culture can begin to mitigate the effects of that culture by listening to girls and by honoring their own memories, thereby hoping to genuinely make room in the classroom for the embodied experiences, voices, and values of women and girls.
In this discussion children’s difficult citizenship is examined within the contentious context of children being considered sexual citizens. The relationship of childhood to sexuality is fraught with difficulties, controversies, and complexities; it is one openly and officially based on exclusion, with children constituted as requiring protection from sexuality, considered an ‘adults’ only’ domain, dangerous to children. Hegemonic discourses of childhood and innocence are examined in the ways in which they have been utilized to strictly regulate children’s access to knowledge of sexuality and to deny their relevance and access to sexual citizenship. Utilizing a Foucaultian theoretical framework, it is argued that the regulation of children’s access to knowledge of sexuality is primarily linked to the ways in which childhood and innocence are utilized as a means through which the ‘good’ heteronormative adult citizenship subject is constituted and governed. Children’s education is foundational in the development of the heteronormative good future citizen and sexual citizen subject. Through institutions such as schooling, adults have heavily regulated children’s education and access to information, strictly defining what knowledge children should and should not be privy to. A focus is given to Australian primary schooling and pre-school education. Moral panic is regularly mobilized to reinforce this regulation when the boundaries of what is perceived to be ‘appropriate’ knowledge for children are transgressed. It is argued that this regulation has critical implications for children’s early education, their increased vulnerabilities, and for their health and well-being, not just in their childhood but throughout their lives.
Grounded in a narrative inquiry study of traditional-aged lesbian college students' perceptions of the relationships among their multiple social identities, this article explores implications of queer theory in practice with college students. This case study examines the emancipatory impact of queer notions and a queer theoretical framework on one of the study participant's evolving perceptions of her sexual, gender, and ethnic identities, and discusses the broader implications of queer theory in higher education and student affairs practice.
While attention has been given to older employees’ experiences of sexuality-based discrimination and harassment, this paper explores young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer identifying employees’ (18–26 years old) accounts of working with queer coworkers and managers in Australian workplaces. Two sets of relationships are evidenced and discussed: (a) relationships of connection, affirmation, and support, and (b) relationships of conflict and division. These relationships highlight the multiple points of difference in organizational power and social status between younger and older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer identifying employees. This sparks a critical appraisal of the limitations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer employee groups and networks as a strategy for developing inclusive organizations.
Lesbians and gay men have historically been derided, harassed, silenced and made invisible in Australia. This prejudice and discrimination has been reinforced structurally through social, cultural and political institutions. Although sexual orientation is now included in state and territory anti-discrimination legislation, and recent federal legislative change supports greater parity with the rights of heterosexuals, there is still discrimination towards lesbians and gay men. This paper examines some of the ways that lesbians' and gay male subjectivities are discursively constructed in modern-day Australia. It then reviews the ongoing negative and complex effects of such discourses on same-sex-attracted individuals in schools, schooling cultures and teacher pedagogies. This provides the background for a review of New South Wales Government education policy on ‘homosexuality’ and argues that this policy ultimately reinforces unhelpful discourses about sexual diversity, and fails to reflect the complexities and fluidities of sexual identities. Although policy implementation in schools in itself can be complex, strong and visible support ‘from the top’ in the form of relevant policy is critical to foster widespread action, understanding and cultural change in schools.
The authors argue for teaching queer-inclusive English language arts (ELA). They report on a study that surveyed high school personnel across the United States, revealing that very few people in charge of ELA curricula value such inclusion. In response to these findings, the authors offer “images of the possible” in which texts and methods that could be used in queer-inclusive ELA curricula are suggested. They advocate for teaching ELA that represents diverse people, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning, in a range of positionalities, as both insiders and outsiders in various texts. Such a curriculum is one way for all high school students to experience themselves amid “otherness,” or to experience the “other” in their midst. It is the vehicle for, and the echo of, a varied and varying society—a thesis-antithesis dialectic that eschews synthesis. In order to accomplish this, teachers must educate students to examine and experience the multiple and mutable constituents of identity and culture, of which sexuality is a critical, but hardly constant, constituent.
This paper explores how some schooling cultures in New South Wales (hereafter NSW), Australia, police and silence non‐heterosexuality through a number of institutional processes which enable homophobia and heterosexism to flourish, while normalizing and constituting heterosexuality as the dominant and only valid sexuality. The discussion shows that despite an apparent broader societal ‘tolerance’ for non‐heterosexuality, as well as legislation that condemns anti‐‘homosexual’ discrimination in education in NSW, homophobic prejudice — often in the form of silence, omission and assumption — prevails. It illustrates that schools need to be much more aware and proactive in addressing issues pertaining to this social justice issue to ensure a safe and equitable learning and teaching environment for all members of the school community. There is not one but many silences, and they are an integral part of the strategies that underlie and permeate discourses. (Foucault, 197816.
Foucault , M. 1978. The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An introduction, Edited by:
Hurley , R. New York, NY: Vintage. View all references, p. 27) Lying is done with words, and also with silence. (Rich, 198036.
Rich , A. 1980/84. On lies, secrets and silence. Selected prose 1966–1978, London: Virago. View all references/84, p.186)
Discrimination often silences and marginalizes those who do not conform to the dominant gender and (hetero)sexual discourses that operate in broader society. This discussion addresses the ways that seventeen self‐identified lesbian teachers working in New South Wales (NSW) Australia negotiate their sexual subjectivities at work in order to pass or cover as heterosexual. Despite anti‐discrimination legislation aimed at protecting some basic rights of ‘homosexuals’ in NSW, many lesbian teachers still feel compelled to ‘manage’ their sexuality in the workplace. This paper examines how the discourses of privacy, heterosexuality and motherhood are strategically and at times powerfully used by these women in various contexts. Additionally, it explores the complex intersections of sexuality with age and space and their impact on passing.
This paper considers how three Canadian high‐school students—Ryan, Jeremy, and Bruce—engaged in queer critical praxis intended to free lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans‐identified, and queer (LGBTQ) students from the silence, exclusion, and symbolic and physical violence that heterosexism and homophobia provoke in schools. We, the authors, construct the students’ biographical ethnographies to help us explore their lived and learned experiences in relation to the cultures of the schools and communities that contextualize these experiences. In this exploration, we describe their educational activism and cultural work through which they problematize queer‐exclusive educational policies and practices, enhance communication and strategic action in the intersection of the moral and the political, and monitor the state of the struggle, the extent of transformation, and the need for further social and cultural action in schools. We position this work as queer critical praxis to advance LGBTQ inclusion. In delving into this praxis, we examine the contextual, relational, and dispositional complexities of three facets of Ryan, Jeremy, and Bruce’s work for cultural change and social transformation: the impetus that drove their praxis, the supports that enabled them to keep going, and their ensuing educational activism and cultural work.
This paper reports on findings from research currently in progress that examines anti‐ homophobia education in teacher education courses across New South Wales, Australia. Focusing on one aspect of the broader study, the discussion explores why teacher educators generally considered the incorporation of anti‐homophobia perspectives as important to teacher education as well as the various discourses in which these issues were located. It also highlights the changing discursive locations that frame the incorporation of anti‐ homophobia education across the early childhood, primary and secondary sectors as well as demonstrating how broader sociocultural discourses influence teacher educators' perceptions of the relevance and importance of these issues to teacher training.
We reconceptualize Jones and McEwen's (2000) model of multiple dimensions of identity by incorporating meaning making, based on the results of Abes and Jones's (2004) study of lesbian college students. Narratives of three students who utilize different orders of Kegan's (1994) meaning making (formulaic, transitional, and foundational, as described by Baxter Magolda, 2001) illustrate how meaning-making capacity interacts with the influences of context on the perceptions and salience of students' multiple social identities. Implications for theory, research, and professional practice are discussed.
This article reviews literature that portrays lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students both as victims of heterosexism and homophobia as well as agents, or ones who exert power, for change in schools. It complicates this literature by focusing on three youth who deal with the oppressions they experience in quite different ways and in ways that are not always sanctioned by schools. It challenges educators to recognize and value this agency. It asserts that it is not the job of educators to increase young people's agency. Rather, it is the job of educators to tap into students' agency for the good of the students, and to create school communities that allow students to be themselves and work for social change.
This paper examines the way lesbian identities are silenced in schools particularly through anti-lesbian harassment. Based on research with 30 self-identified lesbian teachers working across high schools in New South Wales, Australia, the discussion illustrates how various responses to anti-lesbian harassment silence the recognition of such harassment, contributing to the invisibility of lesbian identities in schools generally. The argument highlights the shifting nature of both the subject and power. It illustrates how discursively (re)positioning harassers re-establishes and reinforces the harassed teacher's personal and professional power; however, this simultaneously serves to rationalise the harassment. This silences the awareness of the prevalence of anti-lesbian abuse by individualising the behaviour and pathologising the harasser, while ignoring broader socio-political discourses that maintain the frequently subordinated location of lesbian subjectivities.
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