Editorial

The genesis of this Special Edition of Irish Educational Studies ‘Queer Teaching – Teaching Queer’ lies in a symposium held at the 2014 ECER Conference in Porto, Portugal. Entitled ‘Negotiating Heteronormative School Contexts’ – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Issues in Education’, the symposium drew upon innovative scholarship from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Sweden. Subsequent informal discussions between the Chair of that symposium, Declan Fahie, and the Discussant, Renée De Palma Ungaro, tentatively broached the idea of a book or special edition of a journal which could explore these themes further. An obvious collaborator in the form of Aideen Quilty from UCD helped bring this idea to fruition with the immediate and enthusiastic support from the Editorial Board of Irish Educational Studies.

Central to this collection of writing from Ireland, Spain, Canada, Sweden and the UK is the belief that critical research into the interplay between sexuality and education must be underpinned by theoretically sound interrogation. Queer Theory, as an interpretive lens, has been used extensively in gender, sexuality, feminist and queer studies. However, this special edition seeks to champion its applicability to studies of education and offer readers another means of interrogating long-standing ‘givens’ and destabilising apparently sacrosanct mores and regimes of truth/knowledge. Positioned within broader fields of critical theory, queer theory challenges traditions ‘taken for granted’ notions of fixed gender identities. Miller argues that ‘to queer is to denaturalise conceptions of one singular, whole and an “acceptable” educator or student “self”’ (1998, 305). It rejects binaries (male vs. female, man vs. woman, gay vs. straight, etc.) which limit the terms of every subject’s existence within our complex educational worlds. The sanctioning of bodies, including queer bodies, that transgress normatively inscribed codes of social and institutional acceptability, needs to be challenged. Queer theory helps this process by reframing and repositioning sexual identity within a more fluid paradigm. It also provokes readers to reconceptualise how they view themselves as agentic actors within society and perform their gender identity (Butler 1990).

De Palma beings this special edition with a brief contextual Foreword in which she critiques the relationship between heteronormativity and schooling; excavating the repercussions for such beliefs and setting the context for the papers that are to follow. The overwhelmingly denominational systems of schooling in Ireland poses particular challenges for LGB teachers, both personal and professionally. These challenges are addressed and explored in Fahie’s opening paper who highlights the tension that exists for many LGB teachers who work in Catholic schools, where the religious ethos positions them as other or as deviant. Bailey continues this focus on primary education in Ireland, examining anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia policy development and implementation. The Canadian context is considered in Grace’s paper which focuses on the experiences of two teachers who sought to challenge homophobia in schools in British Colombia. Neary considers the experiences of LGB teachers who enter into Civil Partnerships and then negotiate their new civil status among the school community. The important issue of mental health for young LGTQI people is considered by Bryan who challenges readers to reconsider the way in which we accept knowledge as ‘correct’ or ‘true’. Reimers moves the discussion to teacher education and explores issues of heteronormativity and its relationship to nationalism within Initial Teacher Education. Finally, Quilty shifts the interrogative lens to adult and community education. She explores the potential of queer theory to inform pedagogies that challenge and disrupt taken for granted norm-limiting constructs and ideologies, which are commonly reinforced within and across our education worlds. The Afterword is offered by Debbie Ebstein who thoughtfully draws the emergent themes together, highlighting and contrasting the research findings presented and explored in this special edition.