teacher inquiries into gay and lesbian families in early childhood classrooms

Abstract

Gay and lesbian issues are often silenced in teacher education programs. Such silencing has serious consequences for teachers who feel unprepared to discuss such issues in their classrooms. Challenging the silence regarding gay and lesbian issues that often permeates early childhood classrooms, we share a teacher's critical inquiry into teaching gay and lesbian issues through teacher action research. We posit that while gay and lesbian issues need to be an intrinsic part of teacher education classes, practising teachers may create the opportunity to take steps toward addressing diversity, fully including gay and lesbian issues in their classrooms. We propose that the case presented may provide a practical possibility for teachers to find ways to fully include all students in their literacy practices.

“Raised Eyebrows”: Working with Lesbian‐Parented Families — Experiences of Childcare Centre Directors in Australia

“…First, pre‐ and post‐training in EC education was insufficient in assisting educators to address lesbian family matters. This supports claims by those such as Bower and Klecka () and Souto‐Manning and Hermann‐Wilmarth () who also found that educators felt unprepared to address lesbian matters in childcare centres. These prior claims were however, essentially reflective commentary not based on empirical studies.…”

“…Contemporary Early Childhood (EC) educators are expected to cater for children from diverse backgrounds including those who have lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) parents (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority's, ; Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), ; Wolfe, ). Studies show that educators report feeling unprepared to address LGBT issues in EC settings (see Bower and Klecka, ; Souto‐Manning and Hermann‐Wilmarth, ). When types of diversity were ranked hierarchically, studies showed that educators placed LGBT issues on the lowest rungs of relevance (Ferfolja and Robinson, ; Robinson, ).…”

“…Ferfolja and Robinson (2004) however, state that educators have a 'professional, moral and legal obligation to promote critical understandings of sexual "difference" throughout all stages of education' (p.10). Thirdly, research showed that educators felt unprepared to address LGBT issues (see Bower and Klecka, 2009;Souto-Manning and Hermann-Wilmarth, 2008). Reports by lesbian mothers also indicated that their families were not adequately catered for in childcare centres (Skattebol and Ferfolja, 2007).…”

Actitudes, percepciones y prácticas de docentes de preescolar hacia el trabajo con familias homoparentales en Bogotá

“…es fundamental que el personal docente de preescolar sea capaz de reconocer que trabaja con niñas y niños de edades en las cuales es posible generar un impacto positivo a través de la discusión y cuestionamiento de los mensajes que se transmiten a nivel sociocultural (Glass et al. 2015;Souto-Manning & Hermann-Wilmarth. 2008).…”

“…Una de las estrategias que se ha identificado para promover la construcción de entornos seguros es la presentación y la reflexión en el aula sobre las distintas formas de familia (Souto-Manning & Hermann-Wilmarth. 2008;White.…”