"Outing" Queer Issues in Teacher Preparation Programs: How Pre-Service Teachers Experience Sexual and Gender Diversity in Their Field Placements

Abstract

Currently in the United States there are more than 4 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in K-12 public schools (Bochenek, Brown, & Human Rights Watch, 2001). Despite the prevalence of LGBT youth and the diversification of family populations, teacher preparation programs rarely acknowledge "queer" aspects of multiculturalism (Letts, 2002). As a result, a majority of K-12 educators enter the field of teaching unwilling and/or unprepared to engage with queer issues as they relate to students and families, curriculum, and instruction. The culture of silence around homosexuality can put queer youth at risk and deter school stakeholders from addressing queer issues, the discussion of which can lead to deepened understanding, increased empathy, and social action. Employing critical social theory as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the promise of increased awareness about and use of queer-inclusive pedagogy and curriculum in pre-service teacher education. It is argued that such inclusion is necessary to counteract heterosexism in schools that reinforce gender norms and impart heteronormative values. Guided by interpretivist inquiry, the current multiple-case study describes how eight pre-service teachers encountered, made sense of, and responded to sexual and gender diversity in their K-8 field placements. Findings are presented in individual case descriptions followed by a cross-case synthesis and suggest that preservice teachers came into direct and constant contact with queer issues. Participants' overwhelming desire to process and make sense of their encounters as a means of supporting students as well as negotiating their own personal sense of identity also vii

Pre-Service Teacher Candidates� Knowledge and Attitudes of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People

“…Existent research suggests that both the attitudes toward and knowledge of LGB people inform the teaching efficacy and equity orientations of teacher credential candidates or their lack thereof. Nespor (as cited in Murray, 2011), proposes that "Dispositions have a stronger affective and evaluative component than knowledge, and often operate independent of cognition. Thus regardless of teacher awareness or intent, personal dispositions can significantly influence classroom behavior and practice" (pp.…”

“…It therefore follows that the queer theory derives from both multicultural education and culturally responsive pedagogy in that they all share core conceptual and theoretical frames that address individual and structural differences in multiple ways. Murray (2011) affirms that "If prospective teachers are given the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to better support queer youth and to challenge all students to think more critically, then K-12 schools can be transformed into more open, accepting institutions" (p. 2).…”