Queer Kids, School Violence, and the Limits of "Bullying"

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium examines dissonances between anti-bullying discourses and educational equity for LGBTQ+ youth. “Anti-bullying” is the ubiquitous remedy for school safety problems, and yet anti-bullying discourse does not capture the complexities of heteronormative, racist, and ableist identity policing experienced by LGBTQ+ youth. They experience policing through biased speech, curricular violence, online interactions, and overt harassment—all of which are manifestations of intersecting oppressive ideologies that discursively organize ideals of masculinity and femininity. Collectively, these papers confront taken-for-granted understanding of educational inequities experienced by LGBTQ+ youth and argue for research, policy, and practice that account for the relationships between cultural systems of power—particularly along lines of gender and sexuality—and LGBTQ students’ inequitable access to a safe and affirming education.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 4: Policies, Mattering, and Praxis

Chair

• Elizabethe Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)

Papers

• Constructions of "Fault" and Reductive Approaches: Parents' Considerations of Bullying of Gender and Sexuality–Diverse Students - Jacqueline Ullman, Western Sydney University, Sydney (Australia); Tania Ferfolja, University of Western Sydney

• State-Led Configurations of Gender, Violence, and "Bullying" at School: Essentialism at Work - Victoria Rawlings, The University of Sydney

• A Cripistemology Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Bullying, Discrimination, and Harassment of LGBTQI Young Adults With Disabilities - Laurie Gutmann Kahn, Moravian College; Angela Ingram, Pacific Lutheran University

• Addressing Queer Youth and Bullying: Sociologically Informed Approaches - Elizabethe Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI); Melissa J. Smith, University of Central Arkansas