LBGTQ Visibility in Curricular and Extracurricular Spaces in Schools

• In Event: Conducting Activist, Collaborative Research: Sustained Teacher Inquiry on Sexual Identity and Gender Expression in Schools

Abstract

This presentation focuses on LGBTQ visibility in curricular and extracurricular spaces in schools. Drawing from the entire data corpus (68 interviews, which included a total of 76 interviewees), we examine how teachers, students, and other adult personnel understand these domains as opportunities for supporting queer people in schools, or not. The first curricular stories focus on administrators and teachers, exploring the consequences that result from administrators who believe LGBTQ visibility is important in the curriculum and those who believe it is a low priority by looking at how these views affect teachers’ decisions in the classroom. The second set focuses on students and families and illustrates how queer visibility in the curriculum not only allows sexually diverse and gender creative students to see themselves and their shared history in the classroom but also alleviates the pressure on these students or students in same sex households to perform the role of teacher for their peers. The extracurricular stories revolve around sports, coaching, dances, and GSAs. These key stories focus not only on factors that contribute to decision making for adults and youth, but also the implications for educators. The first set of stories stems from instances in sports and coaching, including adults who turn a blind eye to LGBTQ youth as well as those who fight to disrupt heteronormativity in athletics. The next set of extracurricular accounts revolves around events such as prom, homecoming, and a Sadie Hawkins dance, heteronormative extracurricular spaces where queer, trans*, and gender creative students face significant risks and resistance. Finally, the stories of Gay-Straight Alliances demonstrate extracurricular opportunities where students can discuss sexual identity, gender expression and other topics that may not be taken up in content area classes, and the importance of these spaces for queer people in schools. By focusing on these spaces, we are able to juxtapose the curricular and extracurricular experiences of queer students with those of teachers and administrators, revealing the tensions between adults’ intentions and the impacts of these choices on queer youth.

Authors

• Megan Brown, Bishop Hartley High School

• Dorothy Sutton, Metro Early College High School

• Kimberly Swensen, The Ohio State University - Columbus