Principals Can and Should Make a Positive Difference for LGBTQ Students

Abstract

School principals should lead for social change, particularly in support of vulnerable or marginalized students. An important social justice issue in which principals must provide strong leadership, but may not be adequately prepared in university training, is creating positive and inclusive school environments for lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, and questioning (LGBTQ) students. Research reveals that LGBTQ students experience high rates of discrimination, bullying, and physical assault due to their sexual orientation or gender expression. This Application Brief describes how faculty members at a Midwest university developed curriculum and pedagogy for their principal preparation program with the goal of promoting the knowledge and skills that future school leaders need to provide effective leadership for protection, acceptance, and affirmation of LGBTQ students.

Walking the Talk: LGBTQ Allies in Australian Secondary Schools

“…Sophie noted how a lesbian visibility among staff set a tone for making sexuality equality visible that maximized awareness of the presence of gender and sexual diversity in the school and was instrumental in changing perceptions, hearts, and minds. These perceptions echo much of the existing research into the importance of effective leadership on LGBTQ issues in educational domains (Griffin and Ouellett, 2002;Barnet et al, 2006;Vicars, 2008b;Jean-Marie et al, 2009;Branch et al, 2013;Boyland et al, 2016;Lee, 2020) and highlights the importance of school leaders/teachers making visible that which often lies beneath and beyond the surface of the everyday business of school. Articulating a counternarrative that interrupts the silencing is connected to teachers overcoming personal discomfort, and the Ezer et al (2019) study of Australian teachers reports how their participants often expressed feeling confused and hesitant in dealing with the negative impact of heteronormativity on LGBTQ students.…”

LGBT Inclusion in Schools

“…Sophie noted how a lesbian visibility among staff set a tone for making sexuality equality visible that maximized awareness of the presence of gender and sexual diversity in the school and was instrumental in changing perceptions, hearts, and minds. These perceptions echo much of the existing research into the importance of effective leadership on LGBTQ issues in educational domains (Griffin and Ouellett, 2002;Barnet et al, 2006;Vicars, 2008b;Jean-Marie et al, 2009;Branch et al, 2013;Boyland et al, 2016;Lee, 2020) and highlights the importance of school leaders/teachers making visible that which often lies beneath and beyond the surface of the everyday business of school. Articulating a counternarrative that interrupts the silencing is connected to teachers overcoming personal discomfort, and the Ezer et al (2019) study of Australian teachers reports how their participants often expressed feeling confused and hesitant in dealing with the negative impact of heteronormativity on LGBTQ students.…”

QUEER REPRESENTATION IN LEADERSHIP EDUCATION: An Integrative Literature Review

“…It is essential to uncover how these biases manifest. Perhaps, the indifference from leadership towards queer issues or a reluctance to expand on who is queer, stems from a deeper negative ideology about queer people (Boyland et al, 2016;Hughes et al, 2020;O'Malley et al, 2014). It is possible that the discomfort of these individuals leads to the indifference or reluctance to expand queer policies and programs or give queer people more control over controlling their own narrative.…”

“…During this decade, researchers take a more critical approach to studying how universities are including gender identity and sexual orientation in their leadership programs. Rather than holding these programs up as an example of progress, researchers hold them up as evidence that something is missing (Boyland et al, 2016;Brubaker et al, 2011;Case et al, 2012;González, 2020;Hughes et al, 2020;Jennings, 2012;O'Malley et al, 2014). One emerging theme is that on a broad scale, queer topics are largely excluded from diversity and equity programs (Jennings, 2012;O'Malley et al, 2014).…”

“…Whatever the reasoning, minimizing queer issues in far-reaching educational programs potentially reinforces attitudes that there is no need to expand queer rights or evaluate who is an acceptable queer and why. Furthermore, the responsibility of educating students on queer issues falls on individuals who are invested in the topic (Boyland et al, 2016;O'Malley et al, 2016). As a result, institutes of higher education are vulnerable to pockets of segregation as educators within different departments either take it upon themselves to teach about queer issues or choose to remain apathetic towards the topic (O' Malley et al, 2016).…”