Heterosexual students' accounts of teachers as perpetrators and recipients of homophobia. Issue 3 (2nd July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Allen, Louisa
• Is Part Of: Journal of LGBT youth. Volume 17:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 260
• Page End: 279
• Publication Date: 2020-07-02
• Subjects: Homophobia -- schooling -- teachers; Sexual minority youth -- Periodicals; Sexual minority youth -- Education -- Periodicals; 306.76083505
• DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2019.1643272
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1936-1653

Abstract

Abstract: This paper is concerned with how teachers manage homophobia at school. It examines how they deal with homophobia directed at students, and instances when teachers become the recipients of homophobia themselves. This dual focus, on teachers as both the perpetrators and recipients of homophobia, adds complexity to existing studies concerning how homophobia operates in schools. In previous studies, it has been LGBTIQA+ teachers who have provided accounts of homophobia they have experienced. In this research, heterosexual students offer these narratives. Via these accounts, students acknowledge and corroborate teachers' voices in other studies. Students' depictions also reveal nuances in homophobia's operation and that heterosexual teachers can sometimes be its target. In existing literature, LGBTIQA+ students typically provide narratives about whether teachers are effective at addressing homophobia. In the current study, heterosexual students deliver these accounts, confirming their LGBTIQA+ peers' assessment that teachers often ignore homophobia or respond ineffectually. When heterosexual students identify homophobia, they lift the burden for acknowledging and addressing this discrimination from the LGBTIQA+ community. Retelling incidents in this way, recognizes homophobia is not the sole responsibility of individual perpetrators and recipients, but an issue that implicates the whole school and its culture.