ELA (English Language Arts) Teachers’ Support for LGBTQ+ Students in Politically Contentious Times

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Who Can't Say Gay? Centering Justice, Advocacy, and Activism for LGBTQ+ Youth (Table 3)

Abstract

This research engages with the general question of how secondary English teachers execute LGBTQ-inclusive practice in socio-political contexts where state laws contribute to the erasure of LGBTQ+ identities from K-12 curriculum and other facets of school life. All teacher participants work in a single state that, since 2021, has enacted laws that restrict instruction on gender and sexual diversity and limit educational accessibility for transgender students. Specifically, this paper explores possibilities for visibility and dialogue around LGBTQ+ issues that arise within the standards-aligned curriculum and instructional routines of secondary English classrooms. This research lends insight to the particulars of educators’ resistance to the anti-LGBTQ education laws that are common in US states governed by Republican governors and legislatures.

Author

• Melissa J. Smith, Fairleigh Dickinson University