Invisible Minorities: Coming out of the Classroom Closet

Abstract

Eager to celebrate and incorporate the minority experience into the classroom, instructors often forget the "invisible minorities"—those who are stigmatized for a characteristic or quality that is not apparent. Gay men and lesbians, incest survivors, and recovering alcoholics are examples. This article addresses why instructors should include these groups, some defining characteristics, and specific teaching suggestions for management and organizational behavior faculty, based on experience with courses in invisible minorities in California and Illinois.

100 Years of Scientific Evolution of Work and Organizational Psychology: A Bibliometric Network Analysis From 1919 to 2019

“…In this subperiod, many discussions about non-industrial organizational contexts started, as related to the education and administration of educational organizations ( Bogue, 1969 ; Inbar, 1980 ), continuing education, teaching methods and educational programs for staff development ( Hofkosh, 1970 ; Gallos, 1993 ; Golden-Biddle, 1993 ; Thompson, 1993 ), behavior management in educational organizations ( Maher, 1981 , 1985 ), the possibility of conducting group therapy in schools ( Litvak, 1991 ), and the inclusion of minority groups in the classroom ( Shallenberger, 1991 ) or in specific schools ( Selinske et al, 1991 ). Personality studies were also carried out ( Barrick and Mount, 1991 ; Stumpf and Dunbar, 1991 ), organizations related to health care, with discussions on stressful sources ( Cooper et al, 1989 ; Crawford, 1993 ), improvement of work performance ( Makin and Hoyle, 1993 ), disease prevention ( DeVries et al, 1991 ), ethics ( Goffee, 1993 ; Goss, 1993 ) and mental health ( Wright et al, 1993 ).…”

Paradoxes of Sexuality, Gay Identity, and the Closet

“…These contexts frame heterosexuality and opposite‐sex desire as better than homosexuality and same‐sex desire (Butler 1993, 1999; Foster 2008; Yep 2003). These contexts also frame a person as straight until proven gay, thus making the act of identifying as heterosexual unnecessary and simultaneously motivate, even require, a gay person to come out—that is, explicitly validate her or his nonheterosexuality by way of discourse or action (e.g., saying “I am gay,” kissing someone of the same sex; see Butler 1991; Garrick 2001; Shallenberger 1991; Solis 2007). “The closet is not a function of homosexuality in our culture,” Crimp (1993:305) writes,…”