Moving beyond homonormativity in teacher training: experiences from South Australia

Abstract

As growing numbers of lesbian mother families enter the Australian education system, there comes with this an injunction to better include such families. The first step in such inclusion is to ensure that teachers are provided with knowledge about lesbian mother families that moves beyond simply refuting stereotypes, and toward acknowledgement of the specific experiences and needs of this family form. At the same time, however, it is important that educators, when attempting to include lesbian mothers and their children, do not reinstate new norms at the same time as challenging old stereotypes. The present paper reports on the development and application of a workshop aimed at providing education students at one South Australian university with a framework for understanding lesbian mother families that is critical of norms in all their forms, including amongst those who research lesbian mother families. It is suggested that the positive findings from the workshop may reflect the utility of challenging both heteronormativity and homonormativity in conjunction with one another so as to present students with a broadly critical approach to understanding sexuality education.

Lesbian and Gay Educators Functioning in Heteronormative Schools

“…Teacher training programs should ensure that teachers are provided with knowledge about lesbian and gay families that moves beyond simply refuting stereotypes, and toward acknowledgment of specific experiences and needs of various forms of families, including lesbian mothers and gay fathers (Riggs & Due, 2013).…”

Towards creating inclusive environments for LGBTIQ-parented families in early childhood education and care settings: A review of the literature

“…Despite LGBTIQ parents’ accounts of insensitivity and stigma in ECEC settings (Cloughessy & Waniganayake, 2017; Cloughessy et al, 2017; Goldberg, 2014; Goldberg & Smith, 2014a), and EC educators’ self-reported need for training and resources on working with LGBTIQ-parented families (Beren, 2013; Church et al, 2018), limited research has focussed on the provision of pre- or in-service teacher training on meeting the needs of LGBTIQ-parented families (see, for example, Beren, 2013; Janmohamed, 2014; Riggs & Due, 2013). Somewhat counter-intuitively, it appears that even when EC educators hold positive attitudes towards LGBTIQ-parented families, they are less likely to act upon their stated attitudes (Hedge, Averett, White, & Deese, 2014).…”

“…Although this topic may be addressed in some initial teacher education courses (Hedge et al, 2014; Riggs & Due, 2013), it is suggested that addressing this across all initial teacher education courses is important.…”

“…Whilst it is true that children become more accepting about LGBTIQ-parented families once they discover the similarities between LGBTIQ-parented families and their own (Kim et al, 2017), the notion of ‘sameness’ normalises the differences between LGBTIQ-parented and heterosexual families, thus hiding the stigma that LGBTIQ-parented families may experience in society (Clarke, 2002). EC educators may deny or be unaware of their complicity in institutionalising stigma and further legitimating one dominant family paradigm (Cloughessy & Waniganayake, 2013; Riggs & Due, 2013).…”

Video-Conference Interviews: Ethical and Methodological Concerns in the Context of Health Research

“…This link between better contextual knowledge and SRE teaching is not just asking how we can include the concerns of a somewhat excluded minority in school-based SRE, but is about integrating these findings into current debates about what should be taught in SRE to everyone (Haggis and Mulholland, 2014;Riggs and Due, 2013). Research of this kind will expand the scope of this discussion by answering the call for knowledge about young people's lived experience of relationships and sexuality for the purposes of SRE.…”