Subversive Resistors: Teachers Navigating Risk to Serve LGBTQ+ and Racially Marginalized Students

• In Event: Creating Spaces of Belonging and Care for Queer, Trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Communities

Abstract

This narrative inquiry explored teachers’ perceptions of their role in serving LGBTQ+ and racially marginalized students in contexts where doing so is controversialized or criminalized. This study also examined the moves some teachers choose to make to serve these students, despite professional and personal risks. Findings suggest that certain teachers, who feel a sense of moral obligation to serve these students, implement subversive moves to resist oppressive contexts for both students and teachers. Through complex navigation of risks and professional isolation, these teachers use different points of leverage in order to subversively resist. This subversion also appears to take a toll on teachers’ well being and their ability to professionally sustain.

Author

• Robyn Tomiko, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author