Gay Teachers Research Articles

Before ‘gender whisperers’: morality, teacher employment and LGBTIQ+ futures

ABSTRACT This paper responds to the contemporary backlash to LGBTIQ+ rights and its focus on queer and transgender children and teachers in schools, by returning to campaigns to exclude gay and lesbian teachers in the 1970s. It brings renewed historical context to debates surrounding teacher employment and teachers’ moral status as harbingers of the future nation state. We focus on one Australian case, when in 1976 the Queensland government refused to employ a gay teacher, Greg Weir. Drawing on archival sources including campaign newsletters, activist material, and oral histories, we show how this was a formative moment in broader teacher employment relations and the contest between queer denial and queer possibility in schooling, contoured by two enduring disputes over: the first, the control and protection of children; and the second, the moral character of teachers and their role in shaping the future of a settler nation through schooling.

‘Sir, if I let you blow me, will you not put a behaviour point on?’ The working-class, gay teacher and the limits of neoliberal inclusion

This study examines social-class and sexuality in the context of being a teacher in a secondary school in England. It is pertinent as some levels of LGBT inclusion, are currently expected in English schools, however this varies within and across schools. This study explores the case of a single, gay, man from a working-class background, in relation to the homophobia and harassment he routinely experiences as a teacher, as well as the (in)active response of his institution. Findings suggest that the school is (re)produced as hostile for the gay teacher, through a combination of discourses where gay is positioned as subordinate by the students, and where gay is sublimated by the school and staff. Moreover, despite the teacher’s resilience, these problems are enhanced by the current individualized model of neoliberal inclusion, which may not be inclusive of all LGB people.

Breaking Boundaries: Unveiling the Sociolinguistic Tapestry of Lavender Language Among Homosexuals in Region XI

The study aimed to find out the phonological, morphological, and semantic variations of the Lavender language in the provinces of Region XI namely Davao del Norte (DDN), Davao Oriental (DOR), Davao Occidental (DOC), Davao del Sur (DDS) and Davao de Oro (DDO). The study utilized a qualitative research design employing textual analysis approach. Fifteen (15) research participants, consisting of homosexual teachers, took part in the study, selected through purposive and snowball sampling methods. The findings revealed variations in the Lavender language in the provinces of DDN, DOR, DOC, DDS, and DDO. Phonological variations included consonant clusters, phonemic changes, diphthongs, phoneme /ŋ/, and the use of accent marks on vowel phonemes. Morphological variations encompassed reduplication, coinage, and affixation, particularly prefixes, suffixes, and circumfixes. Semantic variations comprised words derived from the names of famous personalities, straight words, brands, food, places, and associated sounds. Overall, the results of the analyses shed light on how subgroups in society develop their own language to communicate with each other.

Homofobia e docência: as dificuldades que docentes homossexuais encontram na prática profissional

This article aims to understand how homophobia impacts the professional experience of homosexual teachers in Ponta Grossa, Paraná. To this end, 5 (five) interviews guided by a semi-structured script aimed at gay teachers from that city, with a view to identifying how homophobia is (re) produced in the school space and which factors make it an institutional phenomenon, as it impacts the professional and private life of these professionals. Subsequently, the interviews were transcribed, analyzed and systematized in a database from the free and open-source software LibreOffice, using content analysis of discourse. From the results, it is evident that teachers suffered homophobia in all school levels, even when they were just students. And, it was possible to identify that all spheres that make up the school space propagate discrimination and prejudice contributing to a continuum of the homophobic phenomenon. Thus, teachers are coerced not to express their sexuality; are censored by the coordination and direction regarding discussions on this subject; are exposed to continuous confrontation with students and other pedagogical staff; there is a greater charge in relation to their practice, as well as the difficulty in relating with other professional colleagues.

Fears of Gay Teachers and the Collectivizing Effects of Emotion Work

This article examines how the formation of the Working Group of Homosexual Teachers and Educators in the Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (German Education Union, GEW) in 1978 was influenced by the affect of fear, and how emotion work emerged as a key aspect of the formation and collectivisation of the group in its first decade until 1991. To this end, we review the state of affect and emotion research in German queer history, analyse the role of fear in the formation of the group in the late 1970s, and explore the group's continued emotion work in the 1980s. We deliberately highlight the aspects of fear and emotion work: while queer and trans studies have paid much attention to anger (Stryker 1994; Landridge 2008; Milani 2021; Malatino 2022), the same cannot be said for fearful emotional states. Although there is a growing body of work on affect and emotion in German queer history, emotion work has only been implicitly addressed. We therefore highlight the role of both fear and emotion work in the history of the GEW's Working Group of Homosexual Teachers and Educators between 1978 and 1991. In discussing the history of the group, we show how not only affect and emotion but also emotion work can be key to historical change, and we touch on the question of how productive the historiographical distinction between affect and emotion is.

Homosexual teachers: life history of Physical Education teachers in Northern Bahia

RESUMO Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar as vivências de professores gays que lecionam a disciplina de Educação Física no Norte da Bahia. Baseamo-nos no campo dos Estudos de Gênero, Sexualidade e Masculinidade. Foram analisadas oito entrevistas de História Oral com professores autodeclarados homossexuais, com base na análise do discurso foucaultiano. Os relatos abordaram seus processos de construções como sujeitos, principalmente a partir das suas orientações sexuais, especialmente seu empoderamento no âmbito profissional. Verificamos que as experiências adquiridas ao longo dos seus processos de formação pessoal foram marcadas pela marginalização, enraizadas em nossa sociedade heteronormativa. Contudo, sua atuação aponta para uma maior inclusão e resistência.

Under the spotlight: exploring the challenges and opportunities of being a visible LGBT+ teacher

ABSTRACT There is an important and broad range of existing literature exploring the experiences of lesbian and gay teachers. However, most of this literature adopts a deficit model whereby openly lesbian and gay teachers are viewed as likely to experience personal and professional difficulty. This article offers a more nuanced, and sometimes positive, portrayal of the experiences of LGBT+ secondary school teachers. It presents findings from a case study of three teachers engaging in a photo elicitation research project, in which participants took photographs in their schools to represent the spaces where they felt most and least safe. Participants later discussed the significance of these pictures in one-to-one interviews, revealing key insights that were often time and contextually specific. Although many of the findings support the view that being an openly LGBT+ teacher can present challenges, the research also provided examples of more positive narratives. These narratives present a new and hopeful perspective, where LGBT+ teachers’ identities can carry a form of queer capital, offering important positives for both the teachers themselves and the schools in which they work.

Books in Review: Finding Hope in a Memoir by a Gay Teacher

Glenn Rhoades delves into a memoir of the historical and personal stories of a contemporary gay teacher.

Teaching out loud: Queer futurity within high school settings

The purpose of this study was to examine how four openly gay male music teachers in distinct US regions enacted Jose Muñoz’s vision of queer futurity within their respective campus environments. Data included field notes from a minimum of six class observations and 59 interviews divided between teachers, administrators, instructional colleagues in other subject areas, students, and students’ parents. Administrators at each school were highly supportive and indicated that gay representation provided a valuable contribution to their school’s commitment to diverse representation. Data also showed that when teachers were open about their sexuality, students felt empowered to live life by their own personal standards, rather than bowing to peer pressure.

Pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward transgender students: Associations with social contact, religiosity, political preference, sexual orientation, and teacher gender

Pre-service teachers can become important allies for trans children and adolescents at school, yet little is known about their attitudes toward transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) students. Based on intergroup contact theory and the secondary transfer effect, analyses of variance of feeling thermometer scores obtained from 560 teacher candidates revealed that attitudes were more positive for teachers with prior contact, close trans friends, and trans family members. Transgender attitudes were also more favorable if teachers were female, less religious, and had a left-wing political preference. Heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual teachers differed non-significantly. Implications for teacher education include increasing the attitudes of (particularly) male teacher candidates and promoting social contact by inviting trans individuals to share their experiences in the classroom.

“Enfrentei muitas tempestades como professor de Educação Infantil”: um debate sobre identidade docente e homossexualidade masculina

Este artigo aborda questões sobre identidade docente, relações de gênero e diversidade sexual no âmbito da Educação Infantil. Discute a construção da identidade docente a partir das experiências de professores homens assumidamente gays que atuam ou atuaram diretamente com a educação e com o cuidado de crianças pequenas, em creches e pré-escolas. A partir das respostas a questionários semiabertos, a pesquisa analisa as experiências desses docentes, buscando compreender as possibilidades, os entraves e os desafios do trabalho educativo com crianças pequenas. Este estudo traz o debate acerca das causas e consequências geradas tanto pelo preconceito de gênero, quanto pela discriminação sexual dentro dessas instituições de Educação Infantil. Busca, portanto, contribuir para o avanço do conhecimento no campo da Educação Infantil, além do combate ao sexismo e à homofobia.

Beyond Invisibility: Early Childhood Teachers’ Inclusion of Rainbow Families

Despite increasing understanding of the importance of including children and families from diverse backgrounds and family structures within early childhood education (ECE) programmes, little attention has been paid to how children and parents from Rainbow Families are included. This article draws on findings from two studies in Aotearoa New Zealand: the first was a national mixed-methods study focused on ECE teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding work with children and families from diverse backgrounds, including those from Rainbow Families. The second study was a small qualitative research project that investigated four lesbian ECE teachers’ experiences, and active disruption of heteronormative dominance within their ECE settings. Data from across the two projects reveal that there are risks for both parents from Rainbow Families and lesbian and gay teachers in being open about their family structures or sexual orientation and that there is silence, and thus a resulting invisibility, about Rainbow Families within ECE programmes. These findings have implications for ECE teachers’ practice, particularly as teachers and teacher educators in many locations work to address issues of exclusion and bias and to create environments where children and their parents are welcomed and have a sense of belonging and inclusion.

The Gay Teachers Association of NYC and LGB Students: 1974–1985

Background/Context This study deals with an intersection of educational history, queer history, and labor history involving the activities of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teachers. The history of LGBT teachers, particularly before the 1990s, has been addressed by only a handful of historians. The prior research most relevant to this study is Jackie Blount's Fit to Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century (2006) and Karen Graves's And They Were Wonderful Teachers (2009). Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study focuses on the activities of the Gay Teachers Association of New York City (GTA) between 1974 and 1985 as they related to teachers’ job security and the safety of LGB students in NYC public schools. It aims to illustrate the sense of responsibility toward LGB students developed by members of the GTA and how they acted on that responsibility. Research Design This is a historical study, relying primarily on archival research and secondarily on interviews conducted by the author. Conclusions/Recommendations The teachers of the GTA developed a comprehensive concept of their responsibility as LGB educators. They came to believe that they had a particular responsibility to LGB students. Finally, GTA members actively pursued equity for LGB students in New York City's public schools through counseling, community outreach, political lobbying, and public debate.

Tales From the Chalkface: Using Narratives to Explore Agency, Resilience, and Identity of Gay Teachers

Existing literature is dominated by accounts which position gay teachers as victims. We were concerned that this only presented a partial insight into the experiences of gay teachers. This study researched the personal and professional experiences of four gay teachers in England. It builds on existing research by presenting positive narratives rather than positioning gay teachers as victims. We use the term “chalkface” to illustrate that all were practicing teachers. The purpose of the study was to explore their experiences as gay teachers throughout their careers. The study used the life history method to create narratives of each participant. Semi-structured interviews were used. The study found that the repeal of Section 28 in England in 2003 did not have an immediate effect on the identities, resilience, and agency of the participants. The 2010 Equality Act in England and changes to the school inspection framework had a greater influence in supporting their agency, resilience, and willingness to merge personal and professional identities. All but one participant managed to use their identities as gay teachers to advance inclusion and social justice through the curriculum. Although the narratives that we have presented do illuminate some negative experiences, the accounts are largely positive, in contrast with existing literature which positions gay teachers as victims.

Sexuality and pedagogy in the accounts of lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers

ABSTRACT This paper examines accounts from lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers, in autobiographical writing and qualitative studies. It uses these accounts to trace productive similarities between discourses relating to pedagogy and to sexuality in English-speaking countries from the 1970s onwards. Alongside these similarities runs a fundamental tension, between the disempowerment of LGB individuals and the traditional authority of the teacher. LGB teachers’ accounts, negotiating this tension, move as a result in opposed directions. While many accounts explore knowledge, authority and speech, they disagree as to their meaning and the implications or their teaching practice. This disagreement becomes particularly sharp in three areas: coming out in the classroom, claiming authority as a teacher (and as a lesbian, gay or bisexual individual), and handling homophobic and biphobic statements from students.

Gay voices without intersectionality is White supremacy: narratives of gay and lesbian teachers of color on teaching and learning

The primary objective of this collection is to document the lived experiences of queer teachers of color who work in P-20 education, as a means of identifying and analyzing how the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality impact teaching dispositions and lived struggles. Similar to Anzaldua, Tate, and Valadez and Elsbree call for ‘queer border crossings’, working across epistemological boundaries and frameworks; the articles presented here cross many disciplinary borders by connecting with individuals across different cultural contexts, in effect breaking pervasive silences of LGB people of color in educational research.

The Rainbow Knapsack Revisited: Being a Gay Teacher in a World of Heterosexual Privilege

Peggy McIntosh published “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” in 1989. Thirty years later, I revisit McIntosh’s seminal work on White privilege to reframe her discussion to one involving heterosexual privilege, most notably as that privilege affects LGBTQ teachers. I rewrite several of McIntosh’s first-person statements to reflect sexual identity instead of race in order to shed light on the pervasive heteronormativity that has the ability to negatively impact lesbian and gay teachers’ experiences in the workplace.

“Gay Teachers Fight Back!”: Rank-and-File Gay and Lesbian Teachers’ Activism against the Briggs Initiative, 1977–1978

“Gay Teachers Fight Back!”: Rank-and-File Gay and Lesbian Teachers’ Activism against the Briggs Initiative, 1977–1978

On Becoming an LGBTQ+-Identifying Teacher: A Year-Long Study of Two Gay and Lesbian Preservice Elementary Teachers

ABSTRACT LGBTQ+-identifying preservice teachers must navigate several different contexts, including the university and public schools, wherein they must make decisions about being open (“out”) regarding their LGBTQ+ identities. However, the small amount of research to date has typically focused on the experiences of LGBTQ+ educators already actively working in public schools. In this year-long, qualitative case study, we present the experiences, perspectives, and challenges of two elementary preservice teachers who identify as gay and lesbian through their year-long student teaching placement. The study offers implications for teacher education programs about often overlooked ways to recruit, support, and advocate for LGBTQ+ preservice teachers.

Courageous Leaders: Promoting and supporting diversity in school leadership development

This article examines the effect of the United Kingdom’s first LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) School Leadership programme. Based on the values of authentic leadership, promoting inclusion, celebrating diversity, accepting difference, challenging the status quo and achieving social justice, the Courageous Leaders programme provided mentoring, training and support for LGBT teachers aspiring to become school leaders. Utilising Social Phenomenology as methodological framework, the article considers the written reflections of a single cohort of 10 lesbian and gay teacher participants to reflect on the way in which Courageous Leaders affected their professional identities and behaviours.