Session Information
23 SES 02 C, Education, Social Inequalities and Gender
Paper Session
Contribution
During the last fifteen years the situation of queer individuals in Iceland has improved very much, making Iceland one of world´s most progressive country in this respect. Today queer individuals have the same legal and civil rights as heterosexuals and the general view of Icelanders is very positive towards sexual minorities. This view was reflected when Icelanders voted a lesbian as their prime minister in 2009. However, this development has not been felt as much within the educational system. The National curriculum and various school curricula do neither mention sexuality nor stress the inclusion and visibility of queer students. This discrepancy between the society in general and the schools when it comes to the rights and issues of queer students can best be explaind by using Ferfolja´s (2007) and Robinson´s (2002) concept of hierarchy of differences. This means that inclusive actions and the rights of queer students are often put at the bottom of the agenda or are even non existing. This can be viewed as manifestations of heterosexism according to many scholars (see e.g. Epstein, 1997; Ferfolja, 2007).
The concept of heterosexism will be the main analytical concept of this lecture. Scholars that have used the concept in their research (Chesir-Teran, 2003; Chesir-Teran og Hughes, 2009; Temple, 2005) have applied the definitions of Friend (1998) and Pharr (2000). The latter stresses that heterosexism and its manifestations needs to be analyzed and studied within the context of institutions.
In the lecture we will discuss the concept of institutionalized heterosexism and use the definition of Pharr. We will present the first results of a study of institutionalized heterosexism in an Icelandic upper secondary school. We ask how to explain the experiences of queer students by looking at institutionalized heterosexism.
The main objectives are two: descriptive and emancipatory. These two objectives are interwoven in the sense that by describing and analyzing the manifestations of institutionalized heterosexism, we will give educators and policy makers a better understanding of its nature and what action could possibly be taken to reduce it. This knowledge can also be helpful to mark a policy within the educational system concerning the rights of queer students, making them more inclusive and visible in schools and curricula. In that way the study is emancipatory.
The results of the study should have interests outside of Iceland for at least three reasons: Firstly it should contribute to the growing body of research which focus on the issues of queer students, applying both critical and queer theory in their apporach. Secondly its results could give teachers and policy makers in education indications of what could be expected in other European upper secondary schools when it comes to institutionalized heterosexism. Discrepancy in this respect between the society in general and the schools could stimulate further research with the aim of reducing the hierarchy of differences. Thirdly contradictions and mismathces in the Icelandic discourse are interesting from a policy perspective.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Chesir-Teran, D. (2003). Conceptualizing and assessing heterosexism in high schools: A setting-level approach. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(3–4), 267–279. Chesir-Teran, D. og Hughes, D. (2009). Heterosexism in high school and victimization among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning students. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38, 963–975. Epstein, D. (1994). Lesbian and gay equality within a whole school policy. Í D. Epstein (ritstjóri), Challenging lesbian and gay inequalities in education. Buckingham: Open University Press. Epstein, D. (1997). Boyz´ own stories: Masculinities and sexualities in schools. Gender & Education, 9(1), 105–116. Ferfolja, T. (2007). Schooling cultures: Institutionalizing heteronormativity and heterosexism. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 11(2), 147–162. Friend, R. (1998). Heterosexism, homophobia, and the culture of schooling. Í S. Books (ritstjóri), Invisible children in the society and its schools (bls. 214–230). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Herek, G. M. (2000). The psychology of sexual prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 19–22. Herek, G. M. (2004). Beyond "homophobia": Thinking about sexual prejudice and stigma in the twenty-first century. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 1(1), 6–24. Jagose, A. (1996). Queer theory. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Kirsch, M. H. (2000). Queer theory and social change. London: Routledge. Linville, D. (2009). Queer theory and teen sexuality. Unclear lines. In J. Anyon (Ed.), Theory and Educational Reserch. Toward critical social explanation (pp. 153-177). New York: Routledge. Pharr, S. (2000). Homophobia: A weapon of sexism. Í M. Plott og L. Umanski (ritstjórar), Making sense of women’s lives: An introduction to women’s studies (bls. 424–438). Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Robinson, K. H. (2002). Making the invisible visible: Gay and lesbian issues in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 3(3), 415–434. Temple, J. R. (2005). “People who are different from you”: Heterosexism in Quebec high school textbooks. Canadian Journal of Education, 28(3), 271–294.
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