Out to In: Reflections of a queer first year teacher

Lauren Hannahs

Paper Title: Out to In: Reflections of a queer first year teacher.

Abstract: This paper explores the experiences of a queer pre-service – now first year – teacher with an undergraduate course “Queer Youth/Straight Schools.” Utilizing readings on the LGBTQ youth experience and queer theory, students in the course designed a research project on LGBTQ identified students’ experience in Syracuse City public schools. The culminating piece of the class was a proposal to the administrators of the Syracuse City School District recommending ways in which institutional changes can be made in order to better the experiences of not only LGBTQ students, but every student that walks the halls. Research findings indicated a clear difference in the perceptions of LGBTQ students and that of teachers as to the inclusiveness of their schools. Drawing from my experience as a queer first year teacher, I will reflect on what I have learned as an outsider, in the student/researcher role to what I’ve learned as an insider, as a part of the social and institutional workings of the public schools. I will reflect upon what it means to be an LGBTQ activist while working in a social system that reinforces the gender binary and systematically supports heteronormativity.