Safe Space Stickers and the Risks of LGBTQ Ally Work in U.S. Secondary Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 44
  In Roundtable Session: Identity Work, Teacher Work: Reconstructing the Real Work of Teaching

Abstract

This paper explores educators’ experiences negotiating school leaders’ resistance to recognizing LGBTQ students and families. Research participants were educators who attended school district-sponsored professional development about supporting LGBTQ students. After PD, educators who posted the Safe Space stickers they received at the training were ordered to remove them by the superintendent. Conflict between participants and leaders was rooted in starkly different interpretations of professional responsibilities to LGBTQ students, and participants’ decisions about resistance were influenced by fear of personal and professional consequences. We argue that this case study illustrates the difficulty of highly-stigmatized social justice work, and it is indicative of risks that can arise when educators subvert status quo in order to advance the interests of marginalized students.

Authors

• Elizabethe Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)

• Melissa J. Smith, University of Central Arkansas