"Subtle" LGBTQ Inclusion: Teacher Allies' Curriculum Negotiations

• In Event: 34.056 - Moving From Out to In: Examining the Experiences of LGBTQ+ Students, Teachers, and Allies

Abstract

This research contributes to scholarship about how cisgender, heterosexual teacher allies participate in improving school environments for LGBTQ students by exploring how participants connected their curriculum decisions to their identifications as allies. Specifically, this paper examines a pattern of teacher allies hesitating to explicitly include LGBTQ topics in curriculum. Instead, they proposed teaching about culture as an effective strategy for developing students’ open-mindedness about differences. I interrogate the function and definitions of the term culture in participants’ narratives of their ally work and argue that such curriculum practices exemplify patterns of heteronormative silencing in K-12 schools—even in the classrooms of educators who have identified themselves as LGBTQ allies.

Author

• Melissa J. Smith, University of Central Arkansas