Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools: Queering Education

Abstract

This essay reviews Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli's (2010) Lambda Award–winning monograph Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools, in which queer and mestizage pedagogies frame a groundbreaking and highly accessible exploration of the issues that sexual border dwellers experience. Her particular focus areas are bisexual “sexually fluid” students, multisexual “queerly mixed” families, and polyamorous, multipartnered families—all of whom are presently underresearched and underrepresented in K–12 educational research. The monograph contains extensive theoretical discussion and an accessible presentation of research in which the authentic voices of participants, students and adults, are interpolated into the discussion.

KEYWORDS:

• Bisexual
• polyamory
• queer
• mestizage
• border dwellers
• haciendo caras
• clotheslining
• education
• family