Lived Realities, Cross-National Perspective: USA Educators’ LGBTQ2S+ Oral Histories and Norwegian Students Understanding of LGBTQ2S+-ness

• In Event: Queer and Trans International and Global Perspectives in Education: Oral Histories and Policy Analysis

Abstract

The U.S.A. has a checkered relationship with LGBTQ2S+-ness and teaching and being a student. Rights for LGBTQ2S+ people have advanced in a way many thought impossible, including addressing LGBTQ2S+-ness in schools, which has also bred resistance. Norway is often considered a socially progressive country, with laws and protections for LGBTQ2S+ people supported by almost all main political parties.

Engaging one another through a critical analysis of our respective research projects, one of oral histories of LGBTQ2S+ educators in the U.S.A. and one of LGBTQ2S+ youth in Norwegian middle schools, we learn about LGBTQ2S+-ness and schooling in these two societies. We believe in a cross-cultural, cross-national comparison as it reveals multiple cracks in the “established” national social order in both countries.

Authors

• Michael Bartone, Central Connecticut State University

• Jon Martin Larsen, Kristiania University