Why Are You Still Wearing Pink, Mister? How a Kindergartner Led to Queer Antiracist Teacher Education

• In Event: 25.067 - Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: 25.067-3 - Confronting Racism in Teacher Education: Navigating Whiteness

Abstract

Objectives
Conversations regarding equal educational opportunity too often leave out queers (Jennings & Macgillivray, 2011; Macgillivray, 2000). Still, a larger exclusion from educational research and policy debates are queers of Color due to what Marquez and Brockenbrough (2013) frame as the inattention given to the intersections of multiple identities and oppressions. In other words, studies on race as it intersects with sexuality to further the promise of an equal education for queers of Color relative to other research topics is a rarity in the broad field of education and in particular teacher education. In a post-gay marriage age when schools are wrestling with questions on adopting LGBTQ history curriculum and debating gender neutral restrooms as inclusionary spaces for transgender students, the significance of this paper can not be over stated – queers of Color deserve a seat at the research table.

Theoretical Perspective
To help close the literature gap, this paper revisits ongoing work addressing the critical question: How does intersectionality and the teaching experiences of a Queer Chicano inform racial justice in teacher education? Use of the capitalized word “still” in the title reflects the updated research that incorporates an intersectional framework, lessons, teaching strategies and narratives. The work aims to raise visibility for sexual identity as it relates to antiracist pedagogy. The piece begins by introducing the concept of Nepantla (Anzaldúa, 2002), the experience of being in between cultures, as a way to describe queer Chicano identity and frame the paper.

Methods, Data
The framework employed draws from critical race (CRT), queer and borderlands theories in a conceptual model referred to as Jotería. CRT accounts for the role of race and racism in education while acknowledging the intersection of race, class, and gender (Solórzano, & Delgado-Bernal, 2001; Solórzano, & Yosso, 2001). This intersectional perspective of CRT is used in conjunction with intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; Crenshaw, 1991; Hancock, 2011) and queer theory’s power to analyze gender and sexuality (Curran, 2006; Luhmann, 1998; Rabiowitz, 2002). Finally, a Jotería framework is also inclusive of La Facultad, a concept informed by borderlands theory, that captures a consciousness of existing as an in-between state refusing to privilege a single core identity, but rather speaks to a hybridity of identity used to confront racism, sexism and homophobia (Roque Ramirez, 2006).

Findings
Courtesy of a teaching incident involving a pink shirt, the discussion segues to a rich description of a kindergartner’s reaction to seeing a male teacher break gender rules. This teaching narrative allows for a springboard to discuss the importance of coming out to preservice teachers and strategies derived from experiential knowledge centered on race, gender, and sexuality.

Significance
The intersectional lens offered through this paper allowed for auto-phenomological data to be framed as raced, gendered, and sexed teacher education narratives focused on transforming theory into pedagogical practice. In short, the paper offers a queer of Color praxis to further educational opportunity.

Author

• Eduardo Lara, California State University - Long Beach