Fostering Safe, Supportive Schools for LGBT Students: A Study of a High School Gay–Straight Alliance

• In Event: 29.090 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.090-22 - Learning Environments and LGBTQ Identity and Well-Being Across Levels of Development

Abstract

Objectives
This research investigated a gay-straight alliance (GSA) in a suburban high school in a midwestern community. This study examined not only the GSA’s implementation (i.e. supports, barriers), but also its larger school and district context including the experiences of and supports for the school’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. This study contributes an in-depth case study of how one GSA functioned in its particular setting, given its school and district characteristics.

Theoretical Framework
A conceptual model developed around conditions for learning provided a lens for examining why negative school experiences are detrimental to the academic success and healthy development of LGBT students and why LGBT-inclusive/supportive policies and practices, including GSAs, are important for these students. The model also integrated perspectives on the purpose and influence of GSAs as well as perspectives on educational policy/program implementation and related influences.

Methods and Data Sources
This sociological case study research followed a descriptive design using multiple methods to study a structure, a GSA, along with its social institutions (a school and district), and individuals’ behaviors and interactions (e.g., teacher behaviors). The evidence gathered included documents and 36 in-depth interviews (including six with GSA student members) along with multiple school and two GSA meeting observations. Furthermore, 69 teachers and 31 students completed surveys.

Results
Key informants identified various GSA purposes, but commonly pointed to one: providing a safe and welcoming space for all ideas and people. Among staff knowledgeable of the GSA, attitudes toward it were quite favorable. However, GSA student interviewees reported mixed support for the GSA from their peers. Finally, important factors affecting the GSA’s implementation at the high school included faculty and administrative support, its visibility in the school, student leadership, recruitment and participation of members, and the quality of meetings. Second, the findings suggested that the school was widely considered physically safe and student support from adults was also quite strong. Although some challenges were evident, including LGBT students not always feeling welcomed and respected by their peers and some staff, student-student relationships were generally positive. The GSA’s greatest benefits to students were in the areas of emotional safety, support, and empowerment.

Significance
At the core of its contribution to the literature, this study found that a GSA was an important resource for even in a physically safe school with significant support from adults and moderately strong social support from peers. The GSA helped to address a key need: providing a space for all students to express their true identity and experience emotional support from their peers, in particular for students worried about or experienced negative family reactions to their LGBT identity. Other major themes included issues of visibility of LGBT identity in the school as a whole, administrative and faculty support of the GSA, and the ways in which large school size impeded student connection as a whole and hindered GSA implementation.

Author

• Jeffrey M. Poirier, American Institutes for Research