Sexual minority teachers as activist-educators for social justice

ABSTRACT

This empirical research explores the conditions, challenges, and lived experiences of how four diverse Canadian educators transcended heteronormative and gender-normative educational environments to become activist-educators for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer inclusion in their K–12 schools and communities. The co-creation of queer ethnographic counter narratives reveal the impetus and conditions that drove these teachers to become activist-educators in their K–12 schools, their motivations for coming out in heteronormative and gender-normative educational environments, the ensuing backlash they experienced during their efforts at promoting educational and cultural change, their individual processes in becoming critical change agents, and the educational strategies and tactics they developed from years of activist work within their schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Activism
• Canadian education
• ethnography
• human rights
• LGBTQ
• public education
• sexual minorities
• social justice
• teachers
• qualitative research

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristopher Wells

Notes on contributor

Kristopher Wells is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta. He is also a faculty director with the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services and cofounder of Camp fYrefly, which is Canada's national leadership retreat for sexual and gender minority and allied youth.