The role of a Gay-Straight Alliance as a force for social justice, as well as for support in a school community, is highlighted in one GSA's story. The GSA and an annual countywide conference, PrideWorks, have as their key goals education and advocacy. Their focus on making schools an inclusive and respectful place where all are welcome and valued…

A growing body of research indicates that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students are often unsafe at school. Little research has examined school safety for students with LGBT parents. We examined adolescents' perceptions of school safety for students with LGBT parents using data from a survey of 2,302 California sixth through…

This article focuses on the concept of leadership endorsed by an urban all-girls' public school and how heteronormative ideas about female success were resisted by a group of the school's gay students through gender performances and named sexualities. The author argues that queer students are gender projects that the school uses to define and…

An evaluation of the Pride & Prejudice program, which ran in three Tasmanian schools in 2006, suggests that students who completed the program had more positive attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. This finding parallels an earlier evaluation of the same anti-homophobia program undertaken in Victoria. The evaluation leads to a discussion…

This article explores what it means to work towards shifting school cultures in order to affirm sexual diversity within the contexts of conducting research within two New Zealand secondary schools. The author charts the series of shifts in thinking and action that she has undergone as to how best to accomplish changes given the challenges that…

This article provides an analysis of teachers' perceptions of and responses to gendered harassment in Canadian secondary schools based on in-depth interviews with six teachers in one urban school district. Gendered harassment includes any behaviour that polices and reinforces traditional heterosexual gender norms such as (hetero)sexual harassment,…

A social developmental framework was applied to test for the socialization of homophobic attitudes and behavior within adolescent peer groups (Grades 7-11; aged 12-17 years). Substantial similarity within and differences across groups were documented. Multilevel models identified a group socializing contextual effect, predicting homophobic…

This paper explores how some schooling cultures in New South Wales (hereafter NSW), Australia, police and silence non-heterosexuality through a number of institutional processes which enable homophobia and heterosexism to flourish, while normalizing and constituting heterosexuality as the dominant and only valid sexuality. The discussion shows…

We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a community service setting. The school intervention took place with a Year 10 class, while the community-based intervention took place with a group of same-sex attracted youth. Using a participatory action research framework, youth in both settings…

In this article I discuss the relationship between theories of identity and making practices in secondary art and design. Of particular interest is the way students are invited to explore identities in relation to a sense of self and the extent to which this is informed by schools' concern to make diversity visible through multicultural…

School leaders must recognize and respect the freedom of expression rights of students within reasonable limits, but they may restrict student expression that creates material and substantial disruption to the educational process. The challenge for school leaders is to achieve the proper balance between the rights of students and the needs of…

This paper presents an analysis of the past decade (1997-2007) of research conducted in the areas of bullying and harassment in secondary schools. The author presents trends in the research as well as addresses the significant gaps left in a field that is heavily influenced by one school thought. By applying a critical feminist lens to this body…

As any teacher or parent knows, adolescence is a time when youth grapple with the question, "Who am I?" Issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability can complicate this question for young people, affecting their schoolwork and their relationships with teachers, family, and peers. This new edition of "Adolescents at…

Heterosexism exists throughout Canadian society, but to what degree is it present in classrooms? In this article, I explore this question through content analysis of twenty francophone Quebec secondary-school textbooks, examining how sexuality and relationships are discussed in five different subjects. These texts are persistently and…

This article explores the performance of masculinity(ies) within the classroom site. Drawing upon research conducted in two co-educational secondary classrooms, it examines the ways in which two groups of boys took up positions of dominance within their respective classrooms and, more specifically, focuses upon the ways in which they came to…