No homo: Reactions to the interruption of heteronormativity on a youth and community work course

Abstract

Based on a three year self- study (S-STEP) into interrupting heteronormativity on youth and community work courses at a higher education institution, this article explores the reaction to the interruption of heteronormativity on youth and community work courses in a range of HEI institutions. Reactions were nuanced and contextual but concurred with existing literature that notes heteronormativity’s pervasiveness and invisibility, that sexuality can be embedded in unsuspected parts of the curriculum; and with the importance of considering students’ experience of homophobia inside and outside the classroom. We encountered strategies of contested engagement, strategic adjustment, avoidance and retreat that represented middle positions between homophobia and acceptance, but were no simple continuum as there was a concurrent intersecting spectrum between fractured and meta reflexives. Using Orne (2013) and Black (2012) schema we also encountered varieties of double and single consciousness, and indeed displaced double consciousnesses.

Keywords:

• Critical pedagogy
• heteronormativity
• higher education
• queer pedagogy
• queer studies
• youth work

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mike Seal

Mike is Professor of Education and Social Mobility at the University of Suffolk. He was previously a Reader in Critical Pedagogy at Newman University and chair of the Romero Freire Institute. His research areas are critical and queer pedagogy and social justice in higher education. He is a National Teaching Fellow, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He has conducted over 30 pieces of funded research, written 11 books, 20 book chapters, 14 journal articles and over 25 other publications. He has presented at over 80 conferences worldwide.