Search Results (8)

Transgender and gender-diverse teachers occupy a precarious position within educational spaces, often facing increased scrutiny and regulation aimed at disciplining their gender expression. This article brings to light original and significant insights by exploring how transgender and gender-diverse teachers resist and subvert cisnormative dress codes, as acts of self-affirmation and resistance within their professional educational contexts. Through an unconventional lens of Barad’s feminist new materialism combined with Wieringa’s continuum of symbolic subversion, our analysis offers an important theoretical contribution by interpreting how these individuals negotiate and challenge institutional cisnormativity, unsettling the tacit expectations of gendered professionalism in their trans embodiment. Drawing on the experiences of three transgender and gender-diverse teacher participants, a group often overlooked, this paper integrates findings from two distinct qualitative studies which used a participatory-focused ‘object-interview’ methodology. Findings from these in-depth studies reveal that transgender and gender-diverse teachers trouble dress code regulations by simultaneously embodying resistance and compliance, effectively reshaping and disrupting gendered expectations and institutional norms. While some forms of self-affirmation expressed by participants remained unseen, others materialised as embodied subversions of normative organisational expectations. Additionally, the degree of agency these teachers have in resisting binary dress code constraints is contingent on the entanglements of the teachers themselves, students, school policies, leadership and institutional climates. Unexpectedly, this research suggests that schools can act as sites of visibility and safety for transgender and gender-diverse teachers, where gender expression is validated and extends beyond the classroom. This article concludes by recognising that, when transgender and gender-diverse teachers resist uniformity and dress code norms, they embody their affirmed identities and, in doing so, offer vital representation for transgender and gender-diverse students, providing a sense of belonging, possibility, and authenticity within educational spaces. Full article

Set against the current societal and religious contexts that Church of England schools find themselves positioned in, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Plus (LGBTQ+) teachers must navigate the contested space between their embodied identity and expectations of others. Whilst this research focuses specifically on Church of England schools in England, broader questions of belonging, purpose, and pedagogy are argued to transcend geographical and denominational boundaries. In this series of six interviews with teachers at different career stages who work, or have worked, in Church of England secondary and primary schools, we explore their lived experience of balancing their queer identity against the professional standards of teaching and the views of the school community. Five LGBTQ+ teachers and one ally were interviewed—all but one of whom hold or held senior leadership positions. Key foci for the researchers were discussions around the often-unacknowledged pressure and responsibility that teachers might feel for being a role model for the LGBTQ+ community, with particular nuances due to the Church school context, and, in particular, if the teachers felt that the school environment enabled them to be their authentic selves. An overarching concern was the extent to which LGBTQ+ teachers felt that they were able to thrive in these communities. One consideration for the authors was a hope that key messages could be shared with Diocesan Education Leaders that might enable future generations of LGBTQ+ teachers to feel that they were being appropriately supported and enabled. Full article

The year 2025 marks the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis that profoundly disrupted secondary schools in England and intensified existing inequalities, including those experienced by LGBTQ+ students. Through an analysis of teacher interviews and the lens of intimate citizenship, this article explores how pandemic-driven changes, such as remote learning, school closures, and ‘social bubbles’, exposed the precariousness of LGBTQ+ inclusion and embodiment within educational institutions. The research highlights how cisheteronormativity was sustained through symbolic institutional compliance and cisheteronormative fragility, as LGBTQ+ inclusion was deprioritised through the erasure of safe spaces and restrictions on self-expression. While previous research has primarily focused on students’ well-being, this article centres the perspectives of teachers to consider what can be learned from their experiences to better support students in future crises. The pandemic revealed critical gaps in inclusion efforts, underscoring the urgent need for proactive strategies that extend beyond individual teacher initiatives or informal, hidden curriculum practices. The findings emphasise that LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion must be structurally embedded within curricula, school policies, and teacher training and that the emotional and relational labour of inclusion must be institutionally recognised rather than left to individual educators. Full article

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, or Queer (LGBTQ) students with disabilities face unique challenges in the educational environment, and educators must provide support based on intersectionality. However, research on LGBTQ students in special needs education is limited, and the extent of educators’ awareness and support is not well documented. Therefore, this study explored the awareness, knowledge, and support practices of special needs school educators regarding LGBTQ students. We conducted a nationwide survey of educators in special needs schools in Japan, and 2024 valid responses were analyzed using multiple correspondence and cluster analyses. The results revealed that many educators lacked an understanding of basic LGBTQ terminology and may have been unaware of their discriminatory behaviors. Additionally, most educators had never encountered LGBTQ students with disabilities, potentially hindering these students’ opportunities to seek support. Furthermore, educators who had received LGBTQ training reported higher awareness and being more proactive in supporting LGBTQ students than those who had not. Thus, training may be associated with support-related attitudes. This highlights the need for ongoing training programs that address LGBTQ identity and disability, considering their intersectionality. These preliminary findings suggest the potential for creating an inclusive environment for LGBTQ students with disabilities; nevertheless, structural barriers remain. Full article

The United Nations (UN) places inclusive and equitable lifelong quality education at the center of its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education. Nevertheless, the express inclusion of gender non-conforming and sexual minority students is omitted from UN communications. Drawing on interview and focus group data with recent secondary graduates who identify as LGBTQ+ (n = 20), we investigate their experiences, in terms of equity and inclusivity and lack thereof, in schools during the first years of the SDG-era in Spain (the data collection type respected participants’ personal preferences). Three SDGs, complementary to SDG4, were used as a framework for data analysis: SDG3 Good Health and Well-being, SDG5 Gender Equality, and SDG10 Reduced Inequalities, with SDG4 interconnectedly at the center of the overarching analyses. Participants reported preventable aggressions that affected their mental health and wellbeing in schools, receiving little LGBTQ+-related content in classes other than one-off mentions, and reflected on gender inequalities in their treatment from both peers and teachers. The authors discuss the need for local and national development education action plans and policies to address the exclusion and marginalization of LGBTQ+ students in Spanish high schools and elsewhere. Full article

The way a teacher perceives relational justice—the feeling of being treated equitably and being included—in their work context is central to understanding the negotiation and enactment of teacher identity. For LGBTQ teachers, the degree to which they are out of the closet with their students and colleagues leads to many possible outcomes. These outcomes, ranging from feeling like they need to live duplicitous lives to being activist teachers that subvert the heteronormative assumptions in schools and curricula, are studied here by examining the identity development of a group of gay teachers and their perceptions of the schools in which they work. This article is based on a dissertation study that theorized that the heteronormative nature of teacher education is a limiting factor for gay teachers’ abilities to work and thrive in school contexts. The study included in depth case studies of four gay teachers and their journeys as gay men and teachers. The goal of the study was to answer the question: Does the enactment of gay teacher identity interrupt heteronormativity in schools? The study also sought to answer two ancillary questions: (1) How do gay teachers negotiate gay teacher identity in schools? and, (2) How do school contexts impact gay teachers’ perceptions of identity-based motivation and relational justice? This article will focus on Peter Ryan’s (pseudonym) case study, specifically because of its emblematic nature in summarizing the intent and implications of the overall study. Full article

We examine the lived experiences of high-school students who participated in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-centered activism of some kind, highlighting the promise of gay-straight alliance groups by comparing the experiences of students at schools with gay-straight alliances (GSA schools) with the experiences of students at schools that did not have an LGBTQ-specific group (no-GSA schools). We compare students at GSA and no-GSA schools based on their experiences of harassment, experiences of support from authority figures, and patterns of friendships. We find that students at both types of schools experienced harassment and heard negative comments about lesbian and gay people. However, students at GSA schools reported more support from teachers and administrators than students at no-GSA schools, who have stories of teachers and administrators actively opposing equality for LGBTQ people. Students at GSA schools reported a wide variety of friendships across sexual identities, while students at no-GSA schools felt more isolated and withdrawn. This much-needed qualitative comparative analysis of students’ experiences brings a human face to the improved quality of life that schools with gay-straight alliances can bring to young people. Full article

This study was designed to ascertain teachers’ perceptions of bullying of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth. In a sample of 200 educators (61.0% female; 96.5% White) from a county in southwestern Pennsylvania, there was a significant positive relationship between the teachers’ perceptions of the supportiveness of school staff towards students regardless of sexual orientation and those teachers’ reports of the frequency of bullying victimization experienced by LGBTQ students. Teachers’ perceptions of a higher level of staff and student support was associated with higher reported frequencies of students’ use of derogatory language about LGBTQ individuals and various types of bullying of LGBTQ students. Teachers with a lesbian, gay, or bisexual orientation were found to rate the school staff and students as significantly less supportive of students regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in comparison to heterosexual teachers. Finally, teachers who either were unaware of or believed that their school lacked an anti-bullying policy reported significantly higher rates of physical bullying victimization of LGBTQ students when compared to the rates observed by teachers who reported knowledge of their schools’ anti-bullying policies. Full article