5: Queer Teacher Agency in the Language Pedagogy

Teaching in Thailand for almost 10 years as a queer language teacher made me ask questions like How do queer language teachers manage their English language classrooms? Do they have the agency to modify classroom activities to promote equal participation of all gender-diverse students? Do they bring with them their queer identity into their classroom teaching? If so, how? To satisfy my curiosity and to answer these questions, I conducted an ethnographic study by interviewing and observing the classes of some queer language teachers who volunteered to be my participants in some of the higher education institutions in Thailand. Although some of the queer language teachers were my friends, some of them were invited as part of the snowball participant recruitment through a referral from my friends in the academe. For this chapter, I focus on how queer language teachers define and perceive their agency in the language classroom. To do this, I posed the first research question, “What perceptions do queer language teachers have regarding their teacher agency in language pedagogy?” which aimed to explore how these teachers perceive their own agency within the context of their language classrooms. I then present the findings from semi-structured individual interviews among five self-identified queer teachers who are English language teachers in the country. The interview data revealed that the participants perceived teacher agency as a way to express their identity, make curriculum decisions, exercise flexibility in language teaching, prioritize inclusivity in the classroom, and implement gender-inclusive teaching practices.