From neutrality to engagement: the modalities of understanding secondary teacher professionalism in dealing with LGBT issues

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a framework for analysing teachers’ various modes of positioning towards LGBT students, generated from their understanding of the concept of teacher professionalism. The main research question of the empirical study, conducted through application of focus groups, is how secondary school educators understand the concept of teacher professionalism in dealing with LGBT issues within the context of secondary school as a place where sexuality is both explicitly present and a taboo. The results, analysed within a neutral-engaged dichotomy of teacher positioning when dealing with LGBT issues, and interpreted from a critical-pedagogical perspective, point to different modalities of understanding and practicing teacher professionalism, as well as to the unsustainability of the neutral orientation of teachers when making both commonplace and unpredictable pedagogical decisions, which are inevitably politicized.

KEYWORDS:

• Focus groups
• LGBT inclusiveness
• secondary education
• transformative teacher action
• professionalism

Acknowledgments

This article is part of the scientific research project LGBT (In)Visibility in Education: Educators’ Perspective, realized with the support of targeted long-term institutional funding of scientific and artistic activities at the University of Zagreb (2019).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.dugineobitelji.com/sluzbena-potvrda-nakon-tri-godine-pravnih-bitaka-zivotni-partneri-mladen-i-ivo-postali-su-udomitelji-i-pruzili-dom-za-dvoje-djece/ (2020, October 12).

2. https://voxfeminae.net/pravednost/povijesni-pregled-razvoja-spolnog-odgoja-u-hrvatskoj-2/ (2020, October 12).

3. For a historical overview, see Hargreaves (2000), who analyses teacher professionalism within four historical periods: the pre-professional age, the age of the autonomous professional, the age of the collegial professional and the post-professional or postmodern age.

4. On different ways of setting privacy rules and balance between teachers’ distance and self-disclosure in relation to students, regardless of LGBT issues, in order to effectively manage risks for themselves and other participants, see Hosek and Thompson (2009).

5. In one focus group, it was emphasized that the teachers, having heard what the topic of the focus group would be, were reluctant to get involved.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Sveučilište u Zagrebu [-].

Notes on contributors

Marija Bartulović

Marija Bartulovic is Associate Professor at the Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. Her main research and teaching interests include intercultural education, feminist pedagogy and qualitative research in education.

Barbara Kušević

Barbara Kuševic is Associate Professor at the Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. Her main research and teaching interests include cooperation between families and educational institutions and qualitative research in education.

Ana Širanović

Ana Širanovic is Assistant Professor at the Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. Her main research and teaching interests include critical pedagogy and children's rights studies.