Uncovering Identity Negotiation Stories of Multimarginalized Students: Debunking Racist and Heterosexist Hegemonies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 53
  In Roundtable Session: Negotiating Intersectional Identities in Normative Spaces

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand and make sense of how multi-marginalized students negotiate their identities and to provide educators with a heuristic theory that informs their approach to school leadership. Using constructivist grounded theory; this study unpacks the k-12 stories of 14 multi-marginalized individuals with bifurcated identities—African American and same-gender-loving (SGL)—and generates substantive theory regarding social homelessness. Through semi-structured interviews, I collected data on (a) how African American SGL males negotiated their multi-marginalized identities in k-12 educational spaces; and (b) what impact—if any—their identity negotiation had on the relationships they built with other students, particularly students who belonged to only one of their marginalized identity groups.

Author

• Rydell Harrison, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools