6: Reflections as a Gay Leader in UK Secondary Schools

In their book, Brett and Brassington (2023) discuss the nature of LGBT+ teachers’ identities through the lens of Goffman’s dramaturgy (Goffman, 1959), whereby we perform different roles based on the social contexts we find ourselves in. They explain that the relationships between personal and professional identities can be explored by considering the ways in which our teacher identity, colleague identity and personal identity overlap and differ. As a leader, I feel that a fourth element—leader identity – is introduced, as this role introduces a new identity that impacts the performance of a professional identity and how this might vary depending on any given situation (see Fig. 6.1).