Exposed Pedagogy: Investigating Lgbtq Issues in Collaboration with Preservice Teachers
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EXPOSED PEDAGOGY: INVESTIGATING LGBTQ ISSUES IN COLLABORATION WITH PRESERVICE TEACHERS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Matthew D. Conley, B.S., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2005 Dissertation Committee: Professor Barbara Seidl, Adviser Approved by Professor Mollie Blackburn Professor Caroline Clark Adviser College of Education Professor Rebecca Kantor Copyright by Matthew D. Conley 2005 ABSTRACT Preparing teachers to serve the needs of children who have been historically marginalized is difficult work. Although a growing body of scholars and researchers has attempted to describe the complexities, challenges, and promises of such work, we are far from understanding how to do it well. While much of this discussion has addressed issues of race and ethnicity, LGBTQ concerns have been glaringly omitted. By continuing to overlook LGBTQ issues in education, we perpetuate heterosexism and maintain LGBTQ youth’s marginalization. Considering previous research that suggests teachers lack knowledge about LGBTQ issues and are ill-equipped to construct pedagogies that are supportive of LGBTQ youth and families, this research aimed to create a joint learning project to foster greater LGBTQ competencies in the context of teacher preparation. My belief that long-term, collaborative inquiry might better support pre-service teachers in understanding issues related to LGBTQ concerns guided this research. This action-oriented, qualitative research project emerged from a critical, feminist paradigm and relied on narrative methods. During the 2002-2003 academic year, the activities of nine student-participants were recorded. Data was primarily in the form of written responses to experiences at the university and reflections related to the larger community- based experiences our collaboration provided. Participants’ responses to inquiry ii experiences related to LGBTQ issues were collected in the form of written papers and taped transcription of classroom conversations. In addition to the “texts” that students produced, the data corpus for this study consisted of my own reflective journal writing and field notes. Analysis and interpretation was conducted to develop understandings of the ways student-participants made sense of the experiences our LGBTQ-focused collaboration had provided. This report offers a description of our year of inquiry. Our collaboration was influenced by the relationships that emerged among participants. Community development was essential to our collaborative work. In community, we were able to seek out experiences that assisted us in moving beyond the university in order to reflect on our own unexplored biases related LGBTQ issues. Following an emergent curriculum, striving for greater teacher/student parity, and collectively scaffolding experiences for one another were the kinds of practices that allowed us to expose these biases and take small steps toward activism. These practices resulted in what we came to call an exposed pedagogy. This research, then, offers pedagogical implications for engaging pre-service teachers with LGBTQ issues. It describes, in essence, how a group of unlikely collaborators came to implement an exposed pedagogy to explore lives beyond their own. iii DEDICATION To my teachers: Allison, Amber, Dan, Jill, Jonathan, Lindsay, Meredith, Shannon, and Whitney iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research is the product of collaboration. In transparent ways, I am indebted to the nine student-participants who took part in this work. Their views and voices are evident throughout this text. Indeed, I could not have accomplished this work without their commitment and dedication. I am grateful to them for sharing their lives with me and making this work possible. In less transparent ways, I am indebted to other collaborators. From the beginning, Barbara Seidl believed not only in the work itself but in my abilities to do it. I am appreciative of her faith in me and for the many contributions she made to the research and my life over the last several years. I also wish to acknowledge my committee members who supported this work. Mollie Blackburn graciously read early drafts of this work and was always available to offer critical feedback. I, too, am indebted to Rebecca Kantor and Caroline Clark who were instrumental in shaping this research. In addition to their intellectual contributions, they both sought out ways to fund this research through my continued assistantship at the university. The intellectual, emotional, and financial support that each of these women provided was influential in substantial ways. Lastly, I wish to acknowledge my family—Linda, Donnie, Kristie, Brenda, Lesley, Barb, Autumn, Carson, Brody, Gavin, and Mae. They loved me through periods v of anguish and supported me in times of joy, never demanding explanation. Their constant commitment nourished and sustained me throughout my years of graduate study. I could not have completed this work without them. It was my good fortune to collaborate with each of these individuals. This work is a reflection of their contributions to my life. Words cannot capture adequately my gratitude. This is an occasion where less is more, where understatement must be sufficient. To each of you, I say, “Thank you.” vi VITA August 1970 ................................................ Born - Shelby, Ohio 1993 ............................................................ B.S., Early and Middle Childhood Education, The Ohio State University 1993 – 1998................................................. Early Childhood Educator 1999 ............................................................ M.A., Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University 1999 – present ............................................. Graduate Teaching Associate, College of Education, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS 1. Conley, M. & Colabucci, L. (2004). Review of the book She’s not there: A life in two genders. Theory Into Practice, 43(2), 159-160. 2. Conley, M.D. & Colabucci, L. (2001). None of the above: Silence and invisibility in the lives of two gay educators. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 452 133). 3. Conley, M.D. & Pape, S. (2000). An exploratory analysis of children’s conceptions of rational numbers: Evidence from students’ paper representations. In K. M. Costner & M. K. Reed (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Annual Spring Conference of The Mathematics, Science, and Technology Educators & Researchers (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 421 353). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education Studies in Teacher Education, Diversity and Equity Education, and Early Literacy Education vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract.......................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ......................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................v Vita ...............................................................................................................................vii List of Figures ...............................................................................................................xii CHAPTERS: 1. THE IMPETUS TO EMBARK............................................................................1 “School Outings”.....................................................................................1 Responding to School Outings ......................................................3 “Teacher Orientation” .............................................................................5 Responding to Teacher Orientation ...............................................7 “Eeeeew”.................................................................................................9 Responding to Eeeeew ................................................................11 Preparing Teachers for Diverse Classrooms............................................14 My Early Attempts......................................................................15 Alternative Approaches to Diversity Education...........................23 Introducing the Study at Hand ................................................................25 Context, Participants, and Data Sources ......................................28 Invoking Imagination .............................................................................31 Mapping the Text........................................................................34 2. THE MOST UNLIKELY COLLABORATORS.................................................37 “From the Start”....................................................................................37 viii Framing the Chapter...............................................................................40 Writing and Researching ........................................................................41 Narrative as Data ........................................................................43 Narrative as Method....................................................................44 Conceptualizing our Emerging Collaboration .........................................45 The Inner Circle..........................................................................47