Chapter 4: Disrupting Heteronormativity Through Critical Pedagogy and Queer Theory

Using research that explores the confluence of knowledge, power, and heteronormativity in a deep investigation of one high school literature textbook over time, this chapter will detail how the books perpetuate heteronormativity and how critical pedagogues and queer theorists can disrupt that marginalization. Specifically it will discuss how the textbooks silence authors, gender nongendered speakers in poems, and ignore critical questioning in order to perpetuate heteronormativity. Building on work from Kincheloe, Duncan-Andrade, Morrell, and others, the chapter will then discuss the role of power in the creation of such books and ways to move beyond the marginalization through critical questioning and activism. Finally, this chapter will discuss how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer marginalization are part of a more broad system of hegemony that can and must be attacked with a common agenda from the critical progressive left.