School's Out: Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom

ISBN: 0520278232

Author: Connell, Cati

Condition: New

How do gay and lesbian teachers negotiate their professional and sexual identities at work, given that these identities are constructed as mutually exclusive, even as mutually opposed? Using interviews and other ethnographic materials from Texas and California, Schools Out explores how teachers struggle to create a classroom persona that balances who they are and whats expected of them in a climate of pervasive homophobia. Catherine Connells examination of the tension between the rhetoric of gay pride and the professional ethic of discretion insightfully connects and considers complicating factors, from local law and politics to gender privilege. She also describes how racialized discourses of homophobia thwart challenges to sexual injustices in schools. Written with ethnographic verve, Schools Out is essential reading for specialists and students of queer studies, gender studies, and educational politics.