Promoting “Queer Voice”: How Supportive Teachers and Schools Foster the Resilience of LGBTQ Youth

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: How to Change the World: LGBTQ Activism as Education

Abstract

This paper focuses on case studies of LGBTQ youth and the potential for individual teachers and school communities more broadly to build resilience among this population. Data are drawn from a larger research study profiled in the author’s recent book. The focus of this particular analysis, however, is on the role of educators as resilience-builders and how “special teachers” and consistently supportive schools can help LGBTQ students be resilient in the face of harassment, parental rejection, and other issues. The role of teachers and other school staff in fostering “queer voice” is also explored—how educators help youth break silences that permeate their lives and speak about their LGBTQ identities with pride and self-affirmation.

Author

• Michael Sadowski, Bard College