LGBTQ Studies and the Next Class: High School Students and a Transfer Task, One Case Study

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-18 - Queer Theory in the Classroom

Abstract

In Fall 2015, a new college preparatory course at a high school focused on the gay rights movement, the AIDS crisis, the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists, and historic events. The LGBTQ social studies course is the first of its kind in San Francisco and a rarity in U.S. public high schools. Through content analysis, this case study considers students’ perspectives on LGBTQ issues and history. Using interviews and textual analysis, this research considers 75 students’ content-creation efforts, totaling 375 multimedia-enhanced digital pages, as well as their views around dominant/non-dominant perspectives. The paper explores how students who completed the LGBT social studies course incorporated multiple perspectives around historical moments and U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Author

• Laura Moorhead, San Francisco State University