Gay and lesbian literature disrupting the heteronormative space of the high school English classroom

Abstract

This paper offers insights into how the teaching of queer topics in English language arts classes can be reframed by bridging the goals, practices and conceptual tools of queer theory to literacy teaching. Drawing on an ethnographic classroom study, which explored a 13-week high school Gay and Lesbian Literature course, this paper discusses how teaching an English literature curriculum centred on the voices and stories of LGBTQI people constitutes a meaningful site for learning and teaching. In the process, I show how a queer-themed literature curriculum not only intervenes disruptively into the heteronormative space of school through its content but also through pedagogical practices that open up new lines of thinking for understanding diverse sexualities and genders. Through vignettes from the classroom, I illustrate how queer moments were enacted in this high school course as the class (a) deconstructed literary and media texts; (b) used moments of discomfort for learning; (c) produced counter-narratives through creative acts; and (d) engaged in experiential learning activities that troubled commonsense understandings of sexuality, sex and gender. The paper aims to provide educators and administrators with ideas on how a comprehensive queer-inclusive English literature curriculum can be implemented in high schools.

Keywords:

• LGBTQ
• queer pedagogy
• queer literacies
• English language arts
• secondary education
• USA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex.

^2. Naming the class Gay and Lesbian Literature reflects institutional concerns for causing controversy. The teacher is in the process of renaming the course LGBTQ Literature.

^3. Sara decided to have her real name used in publications. The names of the students mentioned in the article are pseudonyms to protect their identities.

^4. The teacher designed the curriculum in 2000 and has not changed the focal literary texts, only the supplementary texts, which is why the curriculum does not include twenty-first-century materials.

^5.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = wY1UIES9wx8.

^6. One side of the flip-book represented David and the other side Giovanni (the two main characters in Giovanni's Room). Each page of the flip-book had different colours which when brought together formed the colours of a rainbow.

^7. For a more detailed discussion of the queer literacies framework see Helmer (2015).