The sociocultural factors that influence a novice teacher’s LGBT activism

Abstract

Despite growing support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the United States, the Southeastern region continues to pass legislation that discriminates against those who do not fit normative notions of sexuality and gender. This opposition affects LGBT students and the teachers who identify as LGBT activists. This study of two years of data is an analysis of one novice teacher’s efforts to advocate on behalf of LGBT students despite the resistance that she faced from sociocultural factors influencing her students, classroom, and her teaching practices. An examination of the social, cultural, and political limitations she faced suggest that research advocating curricular changes and findings suggesting that teachers resist sexuality- and gender-based topics ignore the many sociocultural factors acting on educators in the Southeastern US as they strive to be LGBT activists.

Keywords:

• teacher socialisation
• teacher thinking and knowledge
• theories of teaching