Exploring Heteronormative Complications When Enacting Queer Research in Elementary Schools: An Autoethnographic Perspective

• In Event: 33.068 - Narrating Queer Sexualities in Research and Education

Abstract

We trace ways that heterosexist/homophobic expectations have shaped the empirical research we and others interested in LGBTQ topics have been able to do, particularly in the context of elementary schools. Using autoethnography, we illuminate how we, as (out) queer researchers doing research about LGBTQ topics in elementary schools, navigate the same homophobia/heteronormativity that shape school environments during our research of those environments. We delineate the institutional barriers we have faced in university and K-5 environments, and the pressure we feel regarding the representation of ourselves and our work, and we illustrate how these pressures work together to have a significant effect on the knowledge base of the field with regard to LGBT topics and elementary education.

Authors

• Caitlin Law Ryan, East Carolina University

• Jill M. Hermann-Wilmarth, Western Michigan University