Reflecting on Heteronormativity and Family Diversity: Analysis of an After-School Club

Abstract

This article proposes a reflective process to increase awareness of heteronormativity in student-teacher and student-student interactions. I used 3 theoretical lenses – queer, feminist, and intersectional – to identify and analyze how gender, sex, and sexuality norms influenced interactions in an after-school reading club. This research site was designed to be a generative environment for children to learn about one another and to foster ongoing, in-depth dialogues about family diversity. I draw from specific moments in the study to model how using these lenses of queer theory, feminist epistemology, and intersectionality increased my understanding of challenges children with gay parents may face and how these challenges are reinforced or sustained through discursive and institutional norms that privilege heterosexuality.

Acknowledgments

I thank Emily Carson, Glenn Bracey, Caitlin Ryan, and Jill Hermann-Wilmarth for their brilliant insight and support throughout the process. I take full responsibility for any errors.

Notes

¹ All names have been changed.