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

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, School's Out explores how teachers struggle to create a classroom persona that balances who they are and what's expected of them in a climate of pervasive homophobia. Catherine Connell's 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, School's Out is essential reading for specialists and students of queer studies, gender studies, and educational politics.

Author: Cati Connell
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 11/14/2014
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.90h x 4.80w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9780520278233
ISBN10: 0520278232
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Gender Studies
- Business & Economics | Labor | General
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social

About the Author
Catherine Connell is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University.