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Troubling the Teaching and Learning of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in South African Education pp 71–87Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Shifting Positions of Inclusion

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Part of the book series: Queer Studies and Education ((QSTED))

Abstract

In this chapter, I highlight how teachers draw on problematic religious, legal, and pathological frameworks to include LGB learners and to teach about non-heterosexualities in schools. Unlike previous work, which shows how teachers use these narratives to exclude sexual minorities, the teacher responses in my study are different and echo similar assimilationists’ patterns found in the integration of African learners during the desegregation of South African schools. In this chapter, I trouble the assimilationist arguments for the inclusion of LGB youth and the teaching of non-normative sexualities and show how the normalizing of gender and sexuality diversity is insufficient for dealing with structural inequality as it merely reifies heterosexism and heteronormativity. I have organized the chapter into three themes: Love the sinner, not the sin; They, too, have rights; and Something happened.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Dennis A. Francis

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  1. Dennis A. Francis
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Francis, D.A. (2017). Shifting Positions of Inclusion. In: Troubling the Teaching and Learning of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in South African Education. Queer Studies and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53027-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53027-1_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53026-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53027-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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