IDENTITY SHIFTS: QUEERING TEACHER EDUCATION RESEARCH

Abstract

In conducting a study on the programmatic experiences of lesbian and bisexual preservice teachers, narratives of the silenced identity categories of participants led researchers to consider more queer approaches in their own research practices. In this article, we use queer theory and autoethnography to explore what queer research in teacher education could look like and how research with queer subjects by queer subjects can inform teacher education practices. That the participants in this study identify as lesbian and bisexual set the context—their identities informed and, indeed, enabled us to realize the queerness of the work that we did. Our focus in this article, however, is not the identities of the participants, but how, through work with queer preservice teachers, our identities as researchers and teachers were queered.