The theoretical engagements of scholarship on LGBTQ+ people in higher education: A look at research published between 2009 and 2018.

Abstract

Using a content analysis approach, this study examined how scholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQϩ) people in higher education used theories to advance knowledge about these communities between 2009 and 2018. Guided by the concept of thinking with theory, the article explores the varying relationships that scholars developed between data and theoretical/ epistemological traditions. In particular, the research project had a specific focus on how scholars mobilized critical and poststructural frameworks to shape literature on LGBTQϩ people. Findings revealed several important trends. Namely, there was a significant omission and lack of naming of epistemological foundations in research on LGBTQϩ people. Additionally, studies employing critical and poststructural frameworks increased during this period of time. Although the epistemologies represented in scholarship grew, few articles explicitly mentioned how their chosen theories/ epistemologies informed every aspect of their study design. Implications for future research and practice are offered.

Crip places: Dismantling disability discourse in the 2-year college literature.

“…We delimited this study by removing articles that had less than 80% of data involving 2-year colleges. Although there is rich conversation about the role of theory within research to practice scholarship for other minoritized populations (e.g., Duran et al, 2022; Harris & Patton, 2019), we opted to use the taxonomy developed by Dukes et al (2017) because the omission of critical and intersectional approaches to disability within higher education research is well documented (see Brown et al, 2019; Vaccaro et al, 2015). Following Harper (2012), we treat the articles as data and remove authorship from the findings.…”

“…Further, space within scholarly journals is an indication of what ideas are perceived as important to the field (Peña, 2014). Similar to race (Harper, 2012), gender, and sexual orientation (Duran et al, 2022), critical engagement with how disability is produced, and reproduced in higher education is one approach scholars can use to expose ableism. Examining disciplinary discourse allows readers to “describe the world that takes shape when diversity becomes used as a description” (Ahmed, 2012, p. 12) and reenvision conventions (Agger, 2007).…”

LGBT + academics’ and PhD students’ experiences of visibility in STEM: more than raising the rainbow flag

“…These concepts and theories have influenced the ways scholars have looked at LGBT + experiences in HE, although the relationship between scholarship and theory is often not sufficiently explicit (Duran et al, 2022 ). Research has focused on campus climate and structural issues to investigate factors that might facilitate or hinder visibility (Bilimoria & Stewart, 2009 ; Cech & Waidzunas, 2011 ; Ellis, 2009 ).…”

Teaching Queer Concepts to Graduate Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy to Foster Affirmative Clinical Practice

“…One of the main tasks of preparing future professionals to interact with a diverse population is to increase awareness of those unexamined paradigms so that they may begin to increase their clinical knowledge and skills. 10 This discussion will be framed using a critical epistemology, 11 meaning that current accepted practices and procedures will be discussed in a way that will shine light on how they support oppressive processes, such as heteronormativity, cisnormativity, misogyny, racism, and ableism. We will frame the discussion using several theoretical models, namely, Queer theory/Quare theory, 12,13 DisCrit, 14 the Minority Stress Model, 15 the Ethics of Care, [16][17][18] and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.…”