THE SOUND OF SILENCE: EDUCATORS MANAGING AND REPRODUCING HETERONORMATIVITY IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS by JULIA I. HEFFERNAN A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Education Studies and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Julia I. Heffernan Title: The Sound of Silence: Educators Managing and Reproducing Heteronormativity in Middle Schools This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Education Studies by: Dr. Jerry Rosiek Chairperson Dr. Joanna Goode Member Dr. Krista Chronister Member Dr. Michael Hames-Garcia Outside Member and Richard Linton Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2010 ii © 2010 Julia I. Heffernan iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Julia I. Heffernan Doctor of Philosophy College of Education December 2010 Title: The Sound of Silence: Educators Managing and Reproducing Heteronormativity in Middle Schools Approved: _______________________________________________ Dr. Jerry Rosiek Recent national studies indicate that well over three quarters of sexual and gender identity minority high school students are subjected to verbal and physical violence related to their gender identity or sexuality. An array of sociological studies has found that adolescents openly acknowledge homophobic justification for past verbal harassment and abuse, and masculinity studies associate this abuse with affirming a normative masculinity. This study seeks to determine what conditions could contribute to the social production of such endemic violence and simultaneously preserve a pervasive silence about its social origins. Recent educational research suggests that school based homophobic violence is a product of the overt and covert social rules defining ―normal‖ gender and sexuality appearance and behavior. Drawing on contemporary post- structuralist feminism and queer theory, this study refers to these social norms broadly as ―heternormativity‖ and to the practices that reproduce these norms as ―heteronormative discourses.‖ iv To generate insight into the educational reproduction of heteronormativity, this study undertook a one-year field study in a public middle school, observing incidents of heteronormativity among adolescent youth and the faculty. Data collection included formal observations, participant observations, and semi-structured interviews. Using an embedded multi-case design, fourteen cases in which the school offered interventions into social acts of heteronormative dominance and violence directed at students are analyzed. The study finds that the school interventions themselves often served to reinscribe the heteronormative discourses that produced the acts they purport to deter. The interpretation of and response to incidents of harassment frequently deployed heteronormative rhetoric and reasoning that reinforced narrow conceptions of gender, silenced sexual and gender difference, and contributed to the erasure of stories and lives that do not fit within the heteronormative frame of life in early adolescence. The study closes with a series of suggestions for reducing the reproduction of heteronormativity through a series of educational interventions. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Julia I. Heffernan GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Southwest Texas State, San Marcos, TX Catholic University of America, Washington, DC DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Critical and Socio-Cultural Studies in Education, 2010, University of Oregon Master of Education, 2005, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, 1990, Catholic University of America AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Gender and Sexuality Studies in Education. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Oregon Department of Education Studies, 2007-2010 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Oregon Department of Educational Leadership, 2005-2007 Secondary School Teacher, Corvallis Independent School District, 2000-2004 Secondary School Teacher, Austin Independent School District, 1997-2000 Congressional Page Program Director, U.S. House of Representatives, 1992-1994 vi GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Center on Diversity and Community Doctoral Research Award, University of Oregon, 2009 Clare Wilkins Chamberlin Research Award, University of Oregon, 2009 Silvy Kraus Presidential Scholarship, University of Oregon, 2008 George L. Bean Award for LGBT Scholarship, University of Oregon, 2007 Silvy Kraus Presidential Scholarship, University of Oregon, 2005 Larry Wolford Scholarship, University of Oregon, 2004 College of Education Faculty Scholarship, University of Oregon, 2003 Middle School Teacher of the Year, Austin Independent School District, 2000 Congressional Service Award, U.S. House of Representatives, 1994 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Douglas Ready and Jerry Rosiek made this research project possible. Dr. Ready challenged me to continue my studies and take on this area of scholarship when I was preparing to become a school administrator. He sponsored my doctorate studies for two years and informed my sociological analysis of education. Dr. Rosiek took on mentorship of this project with a passion when Dr. Ready took a position at a distant university. Dr. Rosiek‘s philosophical and methodological expertise along with his academic advocacy for minority issues allowed me to complete this research. I am so thankful for the great fortune that brought each of these men into my life as mentors and as friends. In addition I am grateful to Ellen Scott, Michael Hames-Garcia, and Ernesto Martinez, along with the entire faculty of the Women and Gender Studies Department who supported my studies throughout this project. These scholars offered me an intellectual home and generous support when I was framing this study. I am thankful for the scholarship of C. J. Pascoe, Kevin Kumashiro, and Cathleen Lugg, who deeply informed the framing of this research. Working in this emerging and contested field I have been simultaneously informed and inspired by the courageous scholarship of each of these social theorists. I am also thankful for Dr. Kumashiro‘s honorary attendance and participation during my dissertation defense. I wish to acknowledge the two anonymous administrators of this study, here named Mr. Martin and Mr. Clark. These men willingly opened their lives to my daily scrutiny and offered their insights and ideas to this project. I also wish to acknowledge the youth of Oakwood who opened up their lives to this study. viii My drive to become a professional educator and further to pursue this social scholarship of education I attribute to the guidance of my parents, Catherine and David. They have been and continue to be my inspiration to act with conscience and compassion in the world. This study would not have been possible without their lifelong faith and guidance. And finally I wish to acknowledge the support of my partner Amy and our two daughters. There is no concise way to acknowledge all that Amy‘s support and guidance have offered to make this project possible. I will simply say it would not have been possible to take on and to complete this study without her at my side. ix This study was motivated by and is dedicated to my two daughters, Samantha and Maddie, and my partner Amy. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Section One: The Case of Brandon McInerney and Lawrence King ..................... 1 Who or What: Locating Dominance and Aggression ...................................... 7 Section Two: Theoretical Location of the Study ................................................... 11 Overview .......................................................................................................... 11 Heteronormativity ............................................................................................ 14 The ―Other‖ ................................................................................................ 16 Abjection .................................................................................................... 17 Violence toward the ―Other‖ ..................................................................... 18 Reproducing Heteronormativity in Schools..................................................... 19 Historicizing Heteronormativity in Schools .............................................. 20 Professional Heteronormativity: A History ............................................... 20 Heteronormativity and Sex Education Curriculum.................................... 23 Heteronormative and the Homosexual Student: A History ....................... 24 Patriarchal Discourses Intersecting with Heteronormativity ..................... 27 Educational Research on Heteronormativity ............................................. 28 Educational Leadership and Heteronormative Violence ................................. 28 Naming the Margins: Harassment Policies ................................................ 30 Structuring the Margins: Safe Spaces ........................................................ 31 Erasing the Margins: Case by Case Discipline .........................................