Drawing upon research with Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) advisors, high-school principals, and two district-level administrators, we examine the potential and limits of the safe-space discourse that encompasses the aims of GSAs. We argue that this discourse conceals heteronormative school environments, which supplies the groundwork for hostility perpetrated against LGBT students. We then delineate three strategiesorganizational, pedagogical, and systemic-toward altering the safe-space discourse to a forward-looking, social-justice discourse that fosters the eradication of heteronormative school processes.
We explore the efficacy of one increasingly familiar strategic intervention designed to disrupt antigay school environments—Gay–Straight Alliances (GSAs). Despite the increasing popularity of GSAs, there has been little research on the ways in which they do—and do not—impact school climate. The ubiquity of antigay and homophobic attitudes throughout schools highlights the importance of documenting the advantages and disadvantages of this tactical intervention. Using research with GSA student members, GSA advisors, high school principals, and district-level administrators from a case study of high schools, we identify school practices that either support or destabilize antigay school environments: Silence and passive resistance, the provision of safe spaces, and attempts and challenges to breaking the silence. We then explore the limitations of current efforts to create safe-school environments for sexual minority youth and end by discussing how systemic school reform efforts could be used to transform the broader social context.
A number of different studies carried out in the late 20th century indicated that new religious movements (NRMs) tended to recruit individuals who were highly educated. In the present study, we confirm this pattern utilizing data from the national censuses of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, and Wales. Additionally, we found that educational patterns for NRMs in the censuses tended to fall into at least two subgroups, one of which had educational levels comparable to mainline denominations and the other of which had significantly higher educational achievements. Furthermore, census respondents who expressed some variety of nonbelief were comparable to this latter group in terms of educational accomplishments. We discuss this latter finding in terms of Ernst Troeltsch and Colin Campbell's analysis of secularization.
In this chapter, I examine the academic literature on disaffiliation from an interdisciplinary perspective, most notably scholarship in sociology, psychology, and religious studies. I begin briefly with deconversion, due to its close—and often conflated—association with disaffiliation, followed by an overview of key disaffiliation literature, including the development of causal and role theory approaches. I then discuss the “cult controversy” phenomenon and post-involvement attitudes of former members that featured prominently in early NRM scholarship. I conclude with a discussion on methodological prospects for future research on disaffiliation and NRMs.
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