When Truths Collide: Freedom of Religion Undermines Freedom of Identity in Canadian Public Schools

• In Event: 43.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Six - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 43.080-3 - Curricular Readings and Queer Theorizing

Abstract

The intersectionality between freedom of religion and freedom of identity and expression in schools remains a controversial topic internationally. As primarily socializing agents, schools reproduce the cultural norms of the communities within which they are embedded. When schools are situated in environments with high levels of religiosity, that are non-affirming to gender and sexual minority youth, the impact is felt within the lived curriculum of individual students. Using narrative inquiry, this study explores this impact and student perceptions of how freedom of religion becomes a means to justify discrimination and oppression of sexual and gender diverse students in public schools.

Author

• Tanya Surette, University of Calgary