Silence, obligation and fear in the possible selves of UK LGBT-identified teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article highlights the complexity of LGBT teacher identities in UK educational contexts. The article argues that the historically dissonant relationship between sexualities and schooling is further compounded by embedded assumptions of heterosexuality in schools. In response to these heteronormative assumptions, LGBT-identified teachers negotiate conflicting obligations both to hide their LGBT identities, and to act as role models for their students. Throughout the article, I use the framework of ‘possible selves’ [Markus, H., and P. Nurius. (1986). “Possible Selves.” American Psychologist 41 (9): 954–969] to explore the extent to which these factors are further complicated by the temporal matrix of teaching experience, in which teachers negotiate past and present imaginings of their future teaching identities. I draw on data from interviews with LGBT-identified UK state secondary school teachers to explore the competing temporalities through which these teachers give accounts of their professional practice.