“From an ethic of care to queer resistance”: Texas administrator and teacher perspectives on supporting LGBTQ students in secondary schools

Abstract

LGBTQ students often have a secondary school experience fraught with bullying, mental health struggles, and marginalization. In this qualitative study, we examined teacher and administrator perspectives on school supports for LGBTQ students using data collected for a larger project on early college high schools (ECHS) in Texas. Using an ethic of care in education as a conceptual frame, our findings revealed that participants perceived ECHSs as safe and accepting spaces for sizable populations of queer youth, even in a restrictive state policy context. We suggest that because ECHSs were not intentionally designed to serve LGBTQ students—yet staff perceived to be serving them well—the characteristics embodied by ECHS faculty and staff may serve as aspirational aims for educators in other school contexts.

Keywords:

• LGBTQ students
• queer students
• school heteronormativity
• dual enrollment
• early college high school
• ethic of care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Please note that, consistent with the standards of qualitative research (Ravitch & Carl, 2019), we represent participants’ views in their own words. In some cases, participants used terms that might be considered discriminatory or advancing harmful stereotypes about queer and other marginalized students. We aim to show how these data might be interpreted and understood within the context of participants’ local and state context.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spencer Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Dustin Hornbeck

Dustin Hornbeck is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis where he studies how dual enrollment and early college policies impact students, teachers, and the public school system. His broader research interests include policy shifts in secondary education, LGBTQ student experiences, democracy in education, college transition, and equity in dual enrollment.

Julia C. Duncheon

Julia Duncheon is an associate professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research broadly focuses on college access, preparation, and transition for underrepresented student populations. Recent projects have focused on reforms designed to increase college access and equity such as early college high schools and dual enrollment/dual credit coursework.