Resisting Erasure: The Role of Visibility for Trans K-12 Educators of Color in the “South”

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: K-12 Education at the Intersection of Queerness and Race (Table 5)

Abstract

Employing qualitative narrative inquiry via a Quare Studies theoretical framework, this study explores the experiences of openly transgender K-12 educators of color in the Southern United States by examining how they navigate visibility and identity within public educational institutions shaped by anti-queer and white supremacist ideologies. The study reveals how participants confront institutional marginalization and trans erasure while exerting additional personal and pedagogical labor, illustrating the complex dynamics between their multifaceted identities and professional roles.
Keywords: Quare, Queer of Color Critique, Trans, K12, Southern

Author

• Whitney Neumeyer Roach, University of South Carolina