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Within and between heteronormativity and diversity: narratives of LGB teachers and coming and being out in schools

Llewellyn, Anna; Reynolds, Katie

Within and between heteronormativity and diversity: narratives of LGB teachers and coming and being out in schools Thumbnail


Authors

Katie Reynolds



Abstract

Many schools are taking action to become inclusive of gender and sexual diversity, however, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer teachers (LGBTQ) continue to exist at the margins of both schools and research. This study reports on interviews with a group of self-identifying LGB teachers in England. Subsequent thematic analysis examined the subject positions that are available, particularly around being ‘out’ (or not) in school. Findings suggest that LGB teachers take on complex identity work to maintain their status both as LGB and as exemplary teachers. For many, their desire was to become ‘authentic’ LGB teachers, which for them involved being out in school. However, this is arduous work for people who can be too easily positioned as ‘failing’. There are ways to navigate this, which principally involve becoming the agent of dominant discourses rather than their subject. Overall, there is pressure on the LGB teacher to exist, not because it is a discrete identity, but because of its marked absence from dominant discourses in schools. This is particularly relevant to the neoliberal context in which teachers are caught between performances of heteronormativity and diversity, and where sexuality is intimately related to authenticity.

Citation

Llewellyn, A., & Reynolds, K. (2020). Within and between heteronormativity and diversity: narratives of LGB teachers and coming and being out in schools. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 21(1), 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2020.1749040

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 19, 2020
Online Publication Date Apr 6, 2020
Publication Date Apr 6, 2020
Deposit Date Apr 21, 2020
Publicly Available Date Apr 23, 2020
Journal Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning
Print ISSN 1468-1811
Electronic ISSN 1472-0825
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 21
Issue 1
Pages 13-26
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2020.1749040

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Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (1.4 Mb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.





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