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Melissa Smith, MA
Paper Title: Teaching for Change: Narratives of Creativity and Persistence
Abstract: This paper draws on data collected as part of a larger project evaluating the efficacy of the Reduction of Stigma in Schools program. Data lends insight to how educators understand their roles as public educators in a democratic tradition which “would seem to demand that schools have the…social responsibility to treat all students in a socially just manner” (Macgillvray, 2000, 315). Educators who have participated in the program between 2006 and 2009 told stories of the work they do to negotiate the tension between school policy, parent and student resistance, and their commitment to teaching for equity and social justice. Their narratives of creativity and persistence are indicative of the possibilities for advocacy and action on behalf of LGBT students, and they offer implications for steps school districts and Departments of Education can take to support educators in their efforts to construct educational spaces that are affirming for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Elizabethe C. Payne, Ph.D.
Paper Title: Stand Up, Keep Quiet, Talk Back: Agency, Resistance and Possibility in the School Stories of Lesbian Youth
This paper utilizes portions of a broader life history study with adolescent lesbians, to explore their experiences of school and their resistance to its heteronormalizing culture. Their stories demonstrate not only the “ways in which heterosexual identities are constructed as normal while lesbian… identities are constructed as outside acceptability” within schools (Youdell, 2005, 251), but the creative strategies they employed to “stick it out” (participant) and stay in school. These young lesbian women coped with the stresses and institutional silences around their non-hetero genders and sexualities by choosing their own silence, addressing the homophobia directly, and through telling their stories. The strategies shared by these young women challenge the representation of sexual identity non-disclosure (“staying in the closet”) as “immature” and frame their strategic choices within schools through their careful assessment of their heterosexist environments. Their silences demonstrate not instability in their lesbian identities, but awareness and agency. This study served as the basis for the design of the Reduction of Stigma in Schools program.
Rebecca Johnson, Melissa Smith & Elizabethe Payne
Paper Title: Policy as Protection?: An analysis of school policy in a district sued for failing to protect a student harassed for his gender and sexual identity.
Abstract: Increasingly, efforts to improve school climate for LGBTQ students are turning to legislation, policy, and litigation. Researchers have asserted that in order to disrupt patterns of harassment, schools need “clear, comprehensive, and accessible…policies” that clearly communicate to the entire school community that LGBT students are afforded the same protections as their peers (Anagnostopoulos et al, 2009). However, inclusive policy does not equate to inclusive school culture, and policy without commitment to communication and enforcement is ineffective. This paper explores the limitations of policy and litigation as illuminated by a 2009 school harassment case in Upstate New York. We outline the inconsistencies and ambiguities in the school’s anti-discrimination policies and examine these policies alongside parent and student affidavits which indicate school officials did very little to disrupt the pattern of abuse. The administration’s reported indifference to the policies—which included sexual orientation—was central in supporting a school climate that actively tolerated LGBT harassment. In summary, the larger issues of legislation, litigation, and inclusive policy as tools for improving school climate for LGBT students are explored.
Abstract: Though many LGBTQ youth experience schools as heterosexist and homophobic institutions where all are presumed to be heterosexual, expected to conform to rigid gender role stereotypes, and punished for doing otherwise (Macgillivray, 2000; Blackburn, 2004), schools are also sites of resistance where students and teachers confront the heteronormativity of policies, procedures and curricula in inspiring and creative ways. This panel explores a series of exploratory research and teaching efforts aimed at gaining greater awareness of the LGBTQ student experience, teacher’s perceptions of their roles and responsibility towards LGBTQ students, understanding school district administrator’s non- responsiveness to student needs, and providing opportunities for dialogue around all forms of marginalization in schools.