They're here and they're queer: Conversations about LGBT-themed books with pre-service teachers

Open Access
- Author:
- Rodriguez, Rene
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 14, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Jason Griffith, Major Field Member
Amy Crosson, Major Field Member
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Judith Sierra-Rivera, Outside Unit & Field Member
Kimberly Anne Powell, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- teacher education
LGBT children's literature
LGBT young adult literature
sexuality
multicultural education - Abstract:
- In the field of education, calls for the diversifying of the curriculum to include LGBT themed literature are continuous. These calls often touch upon the value of including LGBT themed literary works into the English Language Arts curriculum and even provide methods to help teachers introduce these texts. Pre-service teachers, as representatives of a new generation of teachers, pose an excellent foundation towards understanding some doubts and concerns teachers present when considering LGBT themed texts for their classrooms. This dissertation project illustrates an interpretative case-study of teacher’s candidates enrolled in a middle grade children’s literature teaching methods course, as they transact with LGBT themed texts and their thoughts on the value of LGBT themed literature in the classroom. Data collected includes audio and transcription of class discussions and interviews, field notes, and literary texts. The analysis of the data plugs in thinking with queer theory to forefront and analyze conversations about sexuality. The thematic analysis shows that pre-service teachers shared their beliefs and some ambivalence on the teaching of LGBT books and topics in a 4-8 classroom setting. This includes nuanced perspectives, such as parental resistance, their capabilities as teachers to teach LGBT-texts, and whether their students would be ready for such conversations. Additionally, preservice teachers discussed LGBT themes mostly during their initial impressions and were less talkative or cautious thereafter unless prompted by the instructor. The in-class discussions were modeled after the Tell Me framework by Chambers (1996), which shed insight into how students approached LGBT texts read and discussed throughout the semester. Lastly, pre-service teachers who had taken prior courses on gender and sexuality dominated discussions. As a result, these students became discussion leaders in class discussion, highlighting the importance of pre-service teachers employing queer theory and history as a theoretical lens. In all, this project reveals how discussions about gender and sexuality through LGBT-themed texts are a key component of teacher education methods courses focused on multiculturalism.