Chapter 20: Renegade Teachers: Deconstructing Heteronormative Narratives in the Classroom

The classroom is undoubtedly a space in which many identities, ideologies, and subjectivities are in constant intersection and interaction. Without conscious acknowledgment and reflection of these complexities at work within classrooms, teachers may unintentionally end up replicating harmful discourses modeled in the heteropatriarchal society from which they originate (Britzman, 2012; Garcia & Slesaransky-Poe, 2010). The traditional schooling model in the United States has done little to accommodate the identities of students and teachers that do not adhere to the strict confines of a heteronormative identity. Living in one of the states whose anti-bullying and anti-discrimination verbiage in public schools excludes LGBTQ+ youth, it becomes more important than ever to be a renegade teacher that supports these marginalized students (Human Rights Watch, 2017). Acts of surveillance, censorship, punishment, and enforcement all work to maintain the order of heteronormativity against the recognition of its own fragility. In other words, heteronormativity itself is weakened when scrutinized and therefore needs institutions, like schools, to uphold heteronormativity and its attitudes and policies.