Safe Classrooms: The Self-Efficacy of High School Students Participating in a Gay-Straight Alliance Group

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Issues of Identity Navigation and Construction Among Queer Youth

Abstract

Despite the recent advances in legal rights across the country, most public K-12 schools remain unsafe for LGBTQ students. Organizations such as the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) network support LGBTQ students and provide an organizational locus for and opportunities to engage in service learning and activism. This paper is based on the findings from a qualitative study of the beliefs and self-efficacy of a group of students who participated in a GSA in a North Florida public high school, which included both focus group and individual interviews with the participants. The results of this study add to the growing evidence that student participation in GSAs can foster a sense of self-efficacy around social justice activism among high school students.

Author

• Robert Lawrence Dahlgren, SUNY - College at Fredonia