"They’re Trying, but They’re Doing a Really Crappy Job”: Barriers to LGBTQ Inclusion at an Urban High School

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Leveraging Intersectional Identity to Name and Resist Dominant Narratives in Formal and Informal Education Spaces

Abstract

This paper explores why an urban high school, despite the best intentions (Lewis and Diamond, 2015), failed to create an LGBTQ-inclusive environment. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic data, findings reveal multiple barriers to inclusion. The barriers—a lack of knowledge resulting from widespread dysconsciousness (King, 1991), an absence of intersectional thought around inclusion, a punitive disciplinary system that failed to integrate proactive methods challenging heteronormativity and cisnormativity, and the real and perceived homophobia and transphobia of the Christian, Afro-Caribbean community —were all roadblocks to LGBTQ-inclusivity. As a result, inclusion was ultimately performative rather than a sustained commitment to change. The paper concludes with implications for practice.

Author

• Nina Mauceri, Independent Scholar