Navigating Parental Resistance: Learning from Responses of LGBTQ-Inclusive Elementary School Teachers (original) (raw)

2018, Theory Into Practice

One of the most common responses from preand in-service teachers related to addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) topics in elementary school is a concern about parents' responses. This article explores these concerns by examining two elementary school teachers' interactions with parents in relation to their LGBTQ-inclusive teaching. This article provides a possible road map for other teachers who are nervous about parental responses to LGBTQ-inclusive teaching and interrupts notions that negative responses from parents are reason enough to avoid including these topics in elementary classrooms. F or the past decade, through our university teaching to preservice teachers at our large regional universities and through our professional development presentations to in-service teachers around the country, we have advocated for the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people and families in elementary schools. No matter whether our students and audience members agree or disagree with the wisdom of this recommendation or see the necessity for such inclusion, the single most common response we receive to such suggestions is, "What about the parents?" Their reaction, echoed in other research (Clark, 2010; Sieben & Wallowitz, 2009; Thein, Kavanagh, & Fink, 2013), indicates the significant gatekeeping mechanism teachers understand parents to play when it comes to approving or disapproving their curricular choices, especially related to