Acting Out! Combating Homophobia Through Teacher Activism

In this volume, teachers from urban, suburban, and rural districts join together in a teacher-inquiry group to challenge homophobia and heterosexism in schools and classrooms. To create safe learning environments for all students they address key topics, including seizing teachable moments, organizing faculty, deciding whether to come out in the classroom, using LGBTQ-inclusive texts, running a Gay-Straight Alliance, changing district policy to protect LGBTQ teachers and students, dealing with resistant students, and preparing preservice teachers to do antihomophobia work.

Book Features:

• Examples of antihomophobia teaching across elementary, secondary, and university contexts, and discussions of the consequences of this work.
• Concrete discussions of how to start a teacher-inquiry group, and the challenges and rewards of engaging in teacher activism.
• A comprehensive annotated bibliography of texts that address homophobia and heterosexism.

Mollie V. Blackburn and Caroline T. Clark are Associate Professors in the School of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University. Blackburn won the 2019 NCTE LGBTQ+ Advocacy & Leadership Award. Lauren M. Kenney teaches 9th- and 10th-grade English at the Arts and College Preparatory Academy. Jill M. Smith is a teacher and GSA advisor at Westerville Central High School.

“These courageous stories serve as both chronicles of resistance and a blueprint for change. A little acting out for social justice is just what we need about now.”
—Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“The authors invite us into their journey with such gripping honesty and complexity that we cannot help but to see the activist potential of teacher inquiry groups like that modeled here.”
—Kevin K. Kumashiro, Center for Anti-Oppressive Education

“This book is thought-provoking, challenging, educational, and tremendously encouraging… an invaluable resource.”
—From the Foreword by JoBeth Allen, University of Georgia

2019 NCTE LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Leadership Award (for Mollie Blackburn)
2011 CEE/NCTE Richard A. Meade Award
2011 Philip C. Chinn Book Award
2010 Choice Outstanding Academic Title