Schooling sexualities and gendered bodies. Experiences of LGBT students in Icelandic upper secondary schools

Abstract

In this paper, we study how Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT) students in Icelandic upper secondary schools interpret their experience of heteronormative environment and how they respond to it. The aim is to explore how sexualities and gendered bodies are constructed through ‘schooling’. The article draws on interview data with seven LGBT students who attended five different upper secondary schools. We also use visual data collected during fieldwork at one upper secondary school and exemplify the results with a poster and a digitalised short-film, produced by the students, to substantiate what participants told us in the interviews. All of the students experienced heteronormative discourse and lack of respect and indicated that they did not feel fully accepted in school. Upon entering the classroom, the visibility of LGBTs and discussion about different performances of gender and sexuality seem to disappear, whether in terms of textbooks, course content, teaching practices and school environment. Furthermore, LGBTs and those who do not conform to the hegemonic performances of gender are often constructed as deviations from the norm, strange, and even depicted as the abjected other. This applies in particular to the informal school, which embraces the traditions, culture and social interactions among students and teachers. This othering occurs, despite relatively positive attitudes towards LGBT people in Icelandic society in general. The results signify a gap between policy and practice as regards the positioning of LBGT students, which affects their schooling and well-being.

Keywords:

• LGBT students
• experience
• heteronormativity
• upper secondary school
• transgender youth
• transphobia

Notes on contributors

Jón Ingvar Kjaran, PhD, is a researcher/lecturer at the University of Iceland, School of Education. His main fields include in education theory and policy, queer and gender studies within education. He is currently working on a book on LGBTQ youth in Iceland, which will be published at Palgrave Macmillan, in the book series Queer studies and Education.

Guðrún Kristinsdóttir, PhD, is a professor in educational studies at the University of Iceland and an Associate Fellow at Centre of Lifelong Learning, University of Warvick in England. Her main research area is conditions and well being of children and young people. The book, Violence at home: Children’s perspectives’ (in Icelandic with English summaries) which Kristinsdóttir edited was awarded the ‘Fjöruverðlaunin’, a women’s literature prize in 2015 and the award for outstanding academic work by ‘Hagþenkir’, the Association of Non-fiction and Educational Writers in Iceland. Kristinsdóttir is on the board of the Centre for Childhood at the School of Education, University of Iceland. She is the book review editor of the journal Nordic Social Work Research.

ORCID

Jón Ingvar Kjaran http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6221-6382

Notes

1. Students attend upper secondary school from 16 to 20 years of age. It is not obligatory but a prerequisite to be able to enrol into a university. This is why the term ‘freshman' does not apply here.