Abstract
The recent school gate protests about the inclusion of LGBT identities in the curriculum suggest that sexual identity remains an issue of moral panic in UK schools. Given this current climate, and the legacy of Section 28, schools have rarely been easy workplaces for LGBT teachers. For LGBT teachers, significant energy and vigilance is required then to navigate the heteronormative and cis-normative staffroom and classroom. There is evidence that LGBT teachers try to remain as invisible as possible in their schools so as to not draw attention to themselves (Lee, 2019a). Some avoid promotion to school leadership roles fearing that the status will necessitate greater personal scrutiny by school stakeholders. Based on key attributes including, reading people, compassion, and commitment to the inclusion of others, making connections managing uncertainty, courage, and risk-taking, this perspective piece argues that some of the strategies LGBT teachers deploy to manage the intersection of personal and professional identities in school equip them with an array of particular skills that are conducive to excellent school leadership.
Highlights
Catherine Lee*Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
This article argues that the strategies deployed by LGBT teachers to manage the intersection of their personal and professional identities equips them with a distinct set of skills that are valuable to effective school leadership
LGBT teachers with personal experience of exclusion are likely to have developed a strong sense of social justice and an abundance of empathy with pupils, parents, and colleagues who may be marginalized on the basis of race, faith or social class, and other protected characteristics
Summary
Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. The recent school gate protests about the inclusion of LGBT identities in the curriculum suggest that sexual identity remains an issue of moral panic in UK schools. Based on key attributes including, reading people, compassion, and commitment to the inclusion of others, making connections managing uncertainty, courage, and risk-taking, this perspective piece argues that some of the strategies LGBT teachers deploy to manage the intersection of personal and professional identities in school equip them with an array of particular skills that are conducive to excellent school leadership
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