Queeruptions and the Question of QTPOC Thriving in Schools - An Excavation

ABSTRACT

This essay is a reflection on ideas explored within the symposium on “queeruptions.”, the spaces and places they point us toward, and the ways they reveal our world. My remarks are multi-layered. First, I revisit several of the queer of color epistemologies described in the articles. Second, I discuss spaces—that exist and are shaped or that are created—as these QTPOC move through the world. Finally, I offer educational implications and invite readers to consider both structural and curricular possibilities. My hope is for readers to take up the challenge of imagining and creating a new world.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Epistemology: “the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity” (Merriam-Webster.com).

2. Ontology: “a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence” (Merriam-Webster.com).

3. LGBTQ+/SGL stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer +/same gender loving.” The term same gender loving was coined in the 1990s by activist Cleo Manago (2013) to be used by African diasporic and Black people in lieu of terms like “gay, bisexual, and lesbian,” which he deemed Eurocentric. The plus sign I’ve added signifies other labeled, unlabeled, or yet-to-be identified gender or sexual identies that transgress socially imposed boundaries of normative (e.g., cisgender, heterosexual) gender, gender performance, and sexuality. My choice to offer the now well-known nomenclature of “LGBTQ” also is about legibility. It may ease access for some readers. I sometimes use the term queer in lieu of the longer phrase LGBTQ+/SGL. I acknowledge the fraught history of the term, noting that its reclamation through self-identification has undermined its hateful power for some, beginning the disruption of deeply embedded structures that would otherwise reproduce hate, shame, and violence. (For a grounding discussion of the terms “queer” and “of color,” see Chan et al, 2001).

4. Hegemony: “the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group” (Merriam-Webster.com).

5. Each symposium author uses different identity abbreviations related, in part, to their subjects’ particular identities. Whenever citing these authors, I use their chosen acronyms and terminology.

6. Pyscher and Lozenski (2014) describe “resistive ambivalence” as evidenced by “[resistance to] homogenization in favor of maintaining cultural integrity” (p. 532). People in this category are noncompliant when it comes to institutional efforts to “rationalize acts of disposal and containment of youth who do not fall in line with the logics of efficiency (e.g. taking their predetermined place in society)” (p. 532). They disrupt “settler colonial social hierarchy [maintained] through the technologies of patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy” (p. 535).

7. One of my mentees recently said to me that their “gender is Steven Universe.”

8. “Alphonza Watson, Jaquarrius Holland, Chyna Gibson, Ciara McEveen, Mesha Caldwell, Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, Keke Collier, JoJo Striker, Stephanie Montez, Candace Towns, among others…” (Boatwright, this issue). See also Waters, Jindasurat, and Wolfe (2016).

9. Cruz (2012) offers several scholarly definitions of testimonio, including “an authentic narrative, told by a witness who is moved to narrate by the urgency of the situation (war, revolution, oppression)” and “a storytelling that challenges larger political and historic discourses and undermines other official knowledge meant to silence or erase local histories of resistance” (p. 461).

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Kia Darling-Hammond

Kia Darling-Hammond has worked for more than 20 years in education and education-adj^acent spaces, undertaking research, mentoring, teaching, coaching, and nonprofit and school leadership. Her scholarship explores possibilities for thriving among youth and young adults who experience complex marginalization. Darling-Hammond holds a PhD in Education from Stanford University, an MAT from Bard College, and a BA from Yale University.