Chapter 14: Tying it All Together: Making Meaning and a Call to Action

There is a lot of work that has focused on the experiences of LGBTQ youth both in and out of school. This research is instrumental in understanding how queer youth navigate the classroom and their lives in the community. An important part of this picture, however, that until now has been largely missing, is the current condition of teacher education programs and preparing future teachers to help change the grim climate of schools and classrooms.

We opened our book with Knaier, who led us through her journey over the past 12 years, first sharing an essay she wrote while in school and then reflecting on the state of affairs regarding the climate of school for LGBTQ youth from the time of her paper to present day. As she noted, although progress in society at-large has been made in securing the rights of LGBTQ people in the United States (e.g., the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that has legalized same-sex marriage nationwide), the same cannot be said of LGBTQ youth in school, who continue to experience significant marginalization by peers, teachers, administrators, and other school personnel (see Kosciw, Greytak, Palmer, & Boesen, 2014 for the most recent data). Knaier argues that there are significant benefits for queer youth if teachers create and an inclusive classroom. However, as she suggests, one of the problems is that teacher educators may assume that preservice teachers will simply know how to make their classrooms and curriculum more inclusive once they are hired, which is not often the case. Knaier calls for teacher education programs to strengthen their curriculum to better equip future teachers with the knowledge and skills to effectively promote inclusiveness, thereby creating a sense of community and belonging for all students.