Expanding Representations of LGBTQ People Through Elementary English Language Arts: Considering Possibilities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 72
  In Roundtable Session: Queering the Possibilities and Promises of Elementary Education

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the LGBTQ-inclusive teaching in a 4th/5th grade English Language Arts classroom. Using case study and participant action research approaches, we consider how students learned to question assumptions regarding gender and sexuality by applying a queer lens to middle grades literature and by engaging in real-world LGBTQ topics. We find that when teachers purposefully engage students in a variety of LGBTQ topics and texts over time, students exhibit deeper understanding of the range and complexity of LGBTQ lives, including the ways other social identities intersect with LGBTQ identities. We explore how students’ continued discussion of LGBTQ identities and topics invited complication of LGBTQ identities, thereby interrupting more narrow, homonormative representations of LGBTQ people.

Authors

• Jill M. Hermann-Wilmarth, Western Michigan University

• Caitlin Law Ryan, East Carolina University