Dangerous spaces: constructing and contesting sexual identities in an online discussion forum

This paper explores ways in which the research design of an anonymous online discussion forum on sexual orientation and schooling fostered the creation, maintenance and/or disruption of linguistic constructions of participant identity. The paper focuses on the presentation of self and the performance of sex–gender–sexuality within a research environment carefully designed as a ‘safe space’: an environment in which the body is conspicuous by its absence, and the construction and performance of identity relies on language alone. We explore the lines of power operating firstly between ourselves as researchers and the discussion participants, and secondly between the participants themselves, and consider the particular complexities involved in both creating and researching an online environment where simply to take part is to be at risk, and where the intervention or participation of the researchers may act both as a silencing mechanism and as a source of danger.     

‘No Outsiders’: Moving beyond a discourse of tolerance to challenge heteronormativity in primary schools

In this paper we describe a UK‐based participatory action research project that looks beyond the discourse of tolerance to investigate and challenge heteronormative processes in primary schools through reflective action research. This 28‐month ESRC‐funded project supports 15 primary teachers working in schools in three regions of the UK to develop action research projects that address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in their own schools and classrooms. In this paper we will examine how the original principles on which the project design was based have manifested themselves throughout the course of the project, drawing upon examples of classroom practice and reflective discussions among project team members. We will explore how designing intentionally for collective participation has produced spaces for people to do and think in ways that have not only gone beyond what we imagined but have also challenged and sometimes contradicted our own ways of thinking.     

A view of rural schooling through the eyes of former students

Teachers who attended unitary rural schools in northwestern Spain were asked to relate their early school experiences in the form of a personal reflective and analytical narrative. Our analysis of these narratives revealed some strikingly difficult conditions; nevertheless, students tended to relate these hardships with a strong sense of nostalgia, focussing on the sense of community that they experienced. These results shed some light on the relevance of personal relations and the broader social and physical environment to the school ethos, and provides practice and design implications for urban as well as rural schooling contexts.     

The nature of institutional heteronormativity in primary schools and practice-based responses

Concern for school-based homophobia is increasing, yet there is a tendency to focus on individual incidents of homophobic bullying rather than the cultural and institutional factors supporting them. We analyse ways in which institutional heteronormativity operates in primary schools and report results from our research in UK schools that culminated in a Participatory Action Research project in which practicing teachers explored possibilities for disrupting dominant discourses of sexuality and gender expression. We argue that policy and practice need to be reconceptualised to recognise institutional heteronormativity and to interrogate the discourses underpinning systematic forms of oppression.     

The separation of economy and sentiment: a comparison of how individuals perceive hostile worlds

ABSTRACT

Analyses of the relationship between economy and sentiment tend to focus on connection rather than separation. Scholars recognize that individuals sometimes identify moral conflicts between economy and sentiment, but primarily focus their research on the boundary or relational work performed to mitigate or disappear the conflict. Instead, I analyze how individuals talk about the relationship between economy and sentiment as separate or hostile, comparing two theoretically distinct groups: non-religious individuals and practicing evangelicals. The comparison allows me to analyze patterns of discourse and boundary-making based on access to institutionalized culture. I find that both groups articulate perceptions of hostile worlds by: (1) maintaining the taboo against talking about money, (2) recommending neutral separation, and (3) demarcating areas of life as too sacred for money. Through comparison, I find that non-religious respondents describe a less permeable vertical boundary line, whereby economy and sentiment are separated into separate spheres, as if side-by-side, while evangelicals describe a more permeable horizontal boundary line, where separation is maintained through the use of consistent hierarchical discourses that assert the moral importance of sentiment over economy. My findings underscore how unequal access to cultural schema differentially shape how individuals connect economy and sentiment, if at all.     

“The voice of every Black person”?: Bringing authentic minority voices into the multicultural dialogue

Multicultural education courses in US teacher training programmes attempt to prepare (mostly and increasingly white) trainee teachers to work effectively with children from racial and ethnic backgrounds different from their own. In this article, I discuss the promise and challenge of fostering critical pedagogical dialogue in these settings, focusing on the particularly complex difficulties faced by ethnic and racial minority students who find themselves present in very small numbers. The challenge for university instructors is to create a safe dialogic space in a setting where minority voices can be both extremely valuable as well as dangerously marginalised and essentialised.