Critical Partners Striving to Expand Social Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives on the Social Studies

Abstract

This paper explores significant intersections between the social studies and lessons learned by students in the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at one Midwestern high school. Informed by Gender and Queer Theory, it draws on ethnographic fieldwork over the course of one school year as well as in-depth interviews with GSA members. The data reveal that students’ attention to gender expression and the knowledge gained from access to information and issues that are important to the queer youth community have strong implications for changing the landscape of social education. The author concludes that the social studies has an opportunity to widen its scope and to deepen its impact on students’ lives based on lessons learned in the Gay Straight Alliance.

Author

• J. B. Mayo, University of Minnesota