'Just Wear Their Hate with Pride': A Phenomenological Autoethnography of a Gay Beginning Teacher in a Rural School

Y

16

Homosexuality; Beginning Teachers; Secondary School Teachers; Social Bias; Self Concept; Foreign Countries; Teaching Conditions; Professional Identity; Experience; Coping

10.1080/14681811.2022.2035344

1468-1811
1472-0825

In this autoethnography I present three narratives exploring how I understood and experienced my identity as a gay beginning teacher working in a rural Australian secondary school, where my sexuality was generally not accepted. Reading these narratives through a phenomenological lens highlights how my subjectivity as a gay man was entangled in my embodied identity as a teacher and how students' homophobic attacks attempted to disempower this identity. I explore how colleagues' responses to these incidents advocated for a disembodied understanding of practice which positioned my sexuality as the issue and attempted to straighten me as a teacher. As a result, this paper argues that being an effective ally to queer beginning teachers starts with respecting and valuing our embodied subjectivities.

As Provided

2023

EJ1390395