Queering Bilingual Teaching in Elementary Schools and in Bilingual Teacher Education

Abstract

This article provides insights into what is possible when a bilingual teacher education program provides support for teachers who want to discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) topics in their classrooms. This study is set in Southern Arizona, a bilingual, multicultural community in predominantly Mexican American classrooms. I challenge the research and professional development in teacher education on diversity, multicultural and bilingual education to be inclusive of LGBTQ issues as critical and central to conversations on social justice education. This piece focuses on what a new teacher, with the support of a graduate program, did to mitigate homophobia in her classroom. Creating more inclusive bilingual teacher education programs is important because this work holds the possibility of creating allies who decrease the burden felt by queer people—students, teachers, families—in schools.