Youth's Experiences of LGBTQ+-Inclusive Curriculum in a Secondary U.S. Classroom at the Intersections of Sexuality, Gender, Race, and Class

ABSTRACT

Previous scholarship about LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum has tended to focus on teachers’ perspectives and drawn on binaries such as presence/absence. Extending past research, this article describes the experiences of youth, primarily but not exclusively LGBTQ+ youth, with LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum with respect to intersecting identities and power relations, specifically, sexuality, gender, race, and class. Drawing from a yearlong ethnography at a public, comprehensive high school in a Midwestern U.S. city, I focus on one literacy learning context, a cotaught sophomore humanities course combining English and social studies. Taking up intersectionality’s epistemological, ontological, and ethicopolitical commitments, the findings describe three sets of intersecting social dynamics that mattered for youth’s classroom experiences and ultimately the liberatory (im)possibilities of LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum: (1) queerness, disclosure, and agency; (2) social capital, class, and race; and (3) homonormativity, race, and outness. These findings offer implications for understanding the relations between LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum and classroom and school climate.

Acknowledgments

I thank Ms. Abby, Mr. Brooks, and all of the youth at the high school who participated in the study, especially those whom I call Camden, Casey, Darius, Imani, Thomas, and Vincent. It was a gift to learn from and with all of them as they generously shared part of their lives with me. I am grateful for the helpful comments on versions of this article from Sarah Lightner, as well as for guidance and mentorship on the larger ethnography from Mollie Blackburn. Whatever flaws remain are my sole responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All names of people and places are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan Schey

Ryan Schey is an assistant professor of English education in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. His research explores language and literacy practices and social change, focusing on queer and trans youth and the educators who work in solidarity with them. His scholarship can be found in journals such as English Education, Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, and Teachers College Record.