Educationally Queer: Teaching lesbian and gay studies in higher education

Abstract

Empirical evidence shows widespread homophobia among university and college students, but also that this can be undermined by the presence of openly gay teachers and courses on gay topics. Such courses recruit well, especially among heterosexual women. Personal experience as a student in school and university, then as an English lecturer and the UK's first professor of gay and lesbian studies, suggests that change, although slow, is evident. However, it is best achieved by holistic approaches to education which take into account the personal identity of the tutor as well as those of students. In particular, the relationship between personal growth and the reading of gay literature needs to be explicitly acknowledged