LGBTIQ+ education for making teaching inclusive? Voices of teachers from all around the world

Abstract

As the protection of the rights and integrity of LGBTIQ+ people seems to be increasing in some parts of the world, discrimination and violence towards them remain a reality in many other contexts. As a result, there is a growing number of initiatives for making education LGBTIQ+-inclusive in order to enhance educational inclusiveness and train fully prepared democratic citizens. However, research is still limited when examining the perceptions of in-service teachers regarding the appropriateness of addressing topics connected to gender identity and diversity and the reality of the LGBTIQ+ community in their lessons and their training to do so. By using a structured interview distributed online, this qualitative study explores the attitudes of 89 in-service teachers from all around the world regarding the introduction of these issues in education. Findings show that, in general, participants agree with the relevance of these issues but highlight that their sensitive nature needs to be considered. Moreover, there seems to be a lack of training in this respect, which would be appreciated. Ultimately, this article intends to expand both research and reflection on the importance of making education LGBTIQ+-inclusive as a means to promote educational inclusiveness and the training of democratic citizens of tomorrow.