Refusing Relevance: School Administrator Resistance to Offering Professional Development Addressing LGBTQ Issues in Schools

• In Event: Approaches of Leaders Building Equity and Inclusion

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight to the multiple ways that school leaders resist, avoid, or block LGBTQ professional development for their staff and thus resist the conversations around school responsibility to these students and families. School leaders who resisted LGBTQ professional development claimed that such training was not relevant to their school contexts, that the training would attract community backlash, that the school board would not approve the training, or that school personnel would not be interested in learning about LGBTQ students. Implications: Increasing LGBTQ content in educational leadership training is a necessary step for convincing school leadership that LGBTQ-competence is necessary for creating a positive school climate for all.

Authors

• Elizabethe Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)

• Melissa J. Smith, University of Central Arkansas