Teaching about Queer Families: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Schooling of Sexualities

Published: 
Aug. 01, 2014

Source: Teaching Education, Volume 25, Issue 3, p. 309-333, 2014

This article investigates primary school teachers’ reflections on addressing the topic of same-sex families and relationships in their classrooms.
Informed by queer theoretical and Foucauldian analytic approaches, the authors examine teachers’ potential use of texts, such as picture storybooks, which introduce representations of same-sex relationships and desire.

By employing a case-study approach, their aim is to provide insights into the pedagogical decisions and the heteronormative conditions under which three teachers in the Australian context attempt to deal with the topic of same-sex families/relationships.
Attention is drawn to the regulatory surveillance of the parental gaze and the silencing and marginalization of sexual identity issues
The authors are interested to illuminate the ways in which the micro politics of teaching about queer families and relationships are inextricably linked to broader macro processes governing the institutionalizing influences of heteronormativity, heterosexism and homonegativity.

Updated: May. 11, 2015
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