Classroom-based microaggressions are a critical problem, associated with a range of negative impacts for students in targeted groups. Central to the problem of microaggressions is that they are often unacknowledged or unaddressed by educators in their own classrooms. Findings from the Social Work Speaks Out! mixed-method survey demonstrate that…

Teachers experience a range of situations in the primary school context where students talk about, share ideas and use words and actions that might be described as non-heteronormative in character. This article reports on teachers' experiences of the ways in which they respond to actions and events they see as non-heteronormative. It identifies…

This empirical research explores the conditions, challenges, and lived experiences of how four diverse Canadian educators transcended heteronormative and gender-normative educational environments to become activist-educators for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer inclusion in their K-12 schools and communities. The co-creation of queer…

This paper examines the meanings educators produce about their experiences working with trans and gender-nonconforming students, and the effects of this discursive process. In this paper, I draw on 62 interviews with school staff conducted in British Columbia to examine how educators understand their role in an institutional context (a school)…

There are increasing calls for pre-service educators to be responsive and responsible for anti-homophobic education. This research builds on the ongoing efforts to integrate Positive Space training in our two-year Bachelor of Education programme. We found through a series of focus group and individual interviews that pre-service teachers were…

In this article we share the impact of a training program (Positive Space I and Positive Space II) on pre-service teachers' understandings of and abilities to create safe spaces for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered and Queering/Questioning (LGBTQ) youth and allies in our teacher-education program and in schools. Research has demonstrated…

In Canada, there is a dearth of research on school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) students. Using social networking, 60 students from high schools in Saskatchewan participated in a climate survey. Results indicated that anti-LGBQ speech was widespread, as were other forms of harassment. The more victimization that was…

The history of civil rights in Canada illustrates a growing trend by the government to support the physical, emotional, mental, legal, and financial needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. However, the education system presents a slightly different climate. Despite numerous policies and initiatives, gay and lesbian students…

Although all teachers are expected to be "role models," discursive trajectories reaching back to the West's gay liberation pressure queer teachers to be role models in specific ways--by "coming out" and helping queer students out of their "time of difficulty." Paradoxically, discourses that construct children as…

Fifty-two secondary teacher candidates from a Canadian university completed questionnaires assessing levels of homoprejudice, knowledge of homosexuality, and perceptions of professional issues related to sexual minority youth. The level of homoprejudice in this sample was lower than in earlier studies with teachers, and lower homoprejudice was…

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,…

This book poses fundamental questions about the role of teachers in society. Chapter 1, "Contentious Behaviors," presents four hypothetical cases of teacher behavior (an affair, bare facts, world views in collision, and crossing boundaries). It also discusses the case of trouble, the normative base, teacher role, social drama, a national…