Understanding Identity and Context in the Development of Gay Teacher Identity: Perceptions and Realities in Teacher Education and Teaching

Abstract

The way a teacher perceives relational justice—the feeling of being treated equitably and being included—in their work context is central to understanding the negotiation and enactment of teacher identity. For LGBTQ teachers, the degree to which they are out of the closet with their students and colleagues leads to many possible outcomes. These outcomes, ranging from feeling like they need to live duplicitous lives to being activist teachers that subvert the heteronormative assumptions in schools and curricula, are studied here by examining the identity development of a group of gay teachers and their perceptions of the schools in which they work. This article is based on a dissertation study that theorized that the heteronormative nature of teacher education is a limiting factor for gay teachers’ abilities to work and thrive in school contexts. The study included in depth case studies of four gay teachers and their journeys as gay men and teachers. The goal of the study was to answer the question: Does the enactment of gay teacher identity interrupt heteronormativity in schools? The study also sought to answer two ancillary questions: (1) How do gay teachers negotiate gay teacher identity in schools? and, (2) How do school contexts impact gay teachers’ perceptions of identity-based motivation and relational justice? This article will focus on Peter Ryan’s (pseudonym) case study, specifically because of its emblematic nature in summarizing the intent and implications of the overall study.

Práticas identitárias não hegemônicas em sala de aula: um estudo com professoras/es em formação em um curso de Letras – Inglês

“…Com esses fins em mente, apoiamo-nos em autoras/es como Almeida e Mota (2009), Almeida (2009;2015), Nelson (2009), K. Silva (2011), Rocha (2013), Urzêda Freitas (2013Freitas ( , 2018, Haddad (2013Haddad ( , 2019, França (2014França ( , 2019, Louro (2014Louro ( , 2019Louro ( , 2020, Filha (2017), hooks 5 (2017), Lander (2018), Rios, Cardoso e Dias (2018), D. C. P. Silva (2019), Pôrto e Mastrella-de-Andrade (2020), Souza (2020), Vianna e Carvalho (2020), entre outras/os que, de modo geral, questionam o dualismo cartesiano que permeia o campo educativo. Em tal modo cindido de pensar, o mundo e as identidades são tomados como constituídos por binarismos hierárquicos e, pretensamente, estáveis no tempo, a exemplo do construto di-Práticas identitárias não hegemônicas em sala de aula: um estudo... Felipe Moreira Rebouças Pinho • Rosane Rocha Pessoa cotômico iluminista "mente-corpo", no qual o primeiro termo sempre possui status superior em relação ao segundo.…”

“I Just Treated Them As Normal” Welcoming And Accepting Rainbow Families Into Early Childhood Education Settings In Aotearoa New Zealand: Newly Graduated Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Preparation By Initial Teacher Education

“…Literature from primary and secondary school settings (Haddad, 2019;Mitton-Kukner et al, 2016) had clear parallels with ECE settings. For example, the challenges of working with management who do not share progressive values such as the importance of including Rainbow families, was similar for ECE and school settings.…”

“…ITE programmes are designed to assist student teachers gain the skills required to work in education settings and, consequently, they need to remain up to date with a rapidly changing world. A wider expectation of ITE is that the programme acknowledges the types of changes required for enacting social justice and interrupting heteronormativity (Haddad, 2019;Mitton-Kukner et al, 2016). Koerner and Hulsebosch (1996) state that reducing homophobia "has to begin from within teacher educators … and their universities and classrooms" (p. 354).…”

“…Therefore, speaking up about issues of social justice is also an important aspect of teaching an anti-bias curriculum. Haddad's (2019) study undertaken in Austin, Texas found that some teachers not only enhanced students' learning opportunities but also challenged the inequities of school and society by speaking up about the injustices they saw.…”

“…Silencing and the lack of inclusion of Rainbow families can be seen as products of heteronormativity (Carpenter & Lee, 2010;Liang & Cohrssen, 2020) which assumes that all people identify as heterosexual. In extreme cases, a product of heteronormativity is homophobia; an irrational fear of LGBT*QI people (Haddad, 2019). study revealed that lesbian families in Aotearoa experience homophobia, as do some lesbian teachers (Cooper 2015).…”