Abstract
Belonging is an important element of one's educational experiences. Recognizing the unique and multifaceted identities of students, it is important to consider various ways in which belonging can be fostered in educational settings. This paper employs a critical science perspective to engage in a valued ends/practical means analysis to investigate the potential for Queer theory to facilitate belonging in educational settings. In the analysis of the valued ends for what educational belonging could encompass, imagination is used as the primary method, in tandem with elements of autoethnography. In this process, three major components of education, including 1) school systems, 2) pedagogy, and 3) educator perspectives, emerged as identifiable catalysts for change and possibility. Then, using these components as a framework for what education could be, a practical means assessment explored theoretical and pedagogical practices that could create change and increase a sense of belonging in educational contexts. The valued ends and practical means outlined in this paper provide a starting point for educators to increase belonging in their classrooms and schools, and the practice of a valued ends/practical means analysis has the potential to create profound change when done by classroom teachers with the unique context of the classrooms and communities in which they practice providing rich context for the end and means they explore.
Introduction
A sense of belonging is not just an important byproduct of education, but rather, it is an essential need for adolescents and young people (Maslow, 1943). Belonging is a multifaceted phenomenon, and the personal and emotional nature of belonging can make it difficult to identify a singular definition of belonging applicable to all within a system. Due to this complexity, this paper combines the following conceptualizations of belonging to examine its emergence in schools. Belonging involves “the way in which an individual relates to others and creates meaningful and satisfactory coexistence,” (Kovač & Vaala, 2021, p. 1207) “being respected as an equal human being with full dignity,” (Powell & Galloway-Poptas, 2024, p. 97) and over all, “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow & Grady, 1993, p. 80). With these perspectives, queer belonging in education can be seen as a reality in which students feel meaningfully connected and a part of their school social environment, not in spite of their identity but because their uniquely individual identity is a source of personal and social power. A sense of belonging at school can increase students’ academic achievement (Arslan, 2019), mediate the effect of bullying (Huang, 2022), and support and retain marginalized students (Pendergast et al., 2018). From my experiences as both a student and teacher, I have felt the benefits of school belonging and the challenges that arise when it is absent. This paper explores how belonging can be achieved by applying Queer theory to an analysis of the valued ends of education and identification of the practical means by which it can be achieved.
Theoretical Framework
This paper draws on three major theoretical foundations. First, using Queer theory as a theoretical framing by which educational systems are analyzed to examine the existence and absence of belonging for both students and adults existing in these systems. Queer theory “challenges the normative social ordering of identities and subjectivities along the heterosexual/homosexual binary as well as the privileging of heterosexuality as ‘natural’ and homosexuality as its deviant and abhorrent ‘other'” (Browne & Nash, 2016, p. 5). Thus, at the center of Queer theory lies the goal to challenge the systems of order that dictate how power and knowledge govern the world (Butler, 1990; Foucault, 1978; Sedgwick, 1990). These systems include assumed and established power differentials, social order, socio-economic status, and all aspects of scientific knowledge, including how knowledge is produced and validated. Essentially, everything that exists and occurs naturally, we have developed a way to quantify, validate, and organize to meet our human need for order. Categorizing knowledge production and power into systems of order might have been done with the intent of managing the uncertainty of the world, but in doing so, it afforded power and privilege to those who could fit their knowledge, learning, and lives into these rigid systems (Turner, 2000). The integration of Queer theory into education goes far beyond the inclusion of queer perspectives or simply the acknowledgment of queer existence, but rather asks for a larger shift in the collective schema that supports a non-binary and pluralistic approach to knowledge and identity as a whole within the context of both learning and schooling alike (Villaverde & Stachowiak, 2019).
Secondly, this paper draws on scholarship from the field of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) to enact a critical science practice (Brown, 1980; Vincenti et al., 2004) within the paper. Critical science is a process-focused implementation of critical theory, which was used as a major catalyst for change in the profession of Family and Consumer Sciences to remain relevant for the twenty-first century and beyond (McGregor, 2003). Critical science came into the field of FCS as a curriculum perspective with the goal of expanding learning beyond skill attainment to better position students as critical thinkers who can positively contribute to society (Vincenti et al., 2004). The implementation of critical science “demands that we examine and question the ends as thoroughly and as continuously as we examine the means for achieving those ends” (Plihal et al., 1999, p. 12). Although examining valued ends and practical means was initially proposed as a task for the curriculum of the FCS classroom, there is the ability for this process to also have a methodological application, which provides the framework for this paper to enact a critical science theoretical perspective.
Finally, imagination is an essential theoretical component used in the identification of the valued ends to which education ought to be working towards. Pulling from an abolitionist praxis, imagining “offers us an opportunity to dream of a world where our families and communities are provided with the utmost care” (Cullors, 2021, p. 87). Taking up a perspective that everything around us, every system, every rule, every creation, every belief was once the product of someone's imagination before becoming a reality, gives us the space and permission to imagine a future that goes beyond the current limitations of reality. In research, imagination can emerge in relation to concepts like radical imagination (Alfred, 2010; Dyke et al., 2018), imagework (Edgar, 2004), daydreaming/dreamwork (Hersey, 2022), collaborative ideation (Brown, 2017), and various other related practices drawn from critical feminist theory (e.g., Berry, 2010, 2014), abolitionist theory (e.g., Cullors, 2021; Riley & Solic, 2021), critical race theory (e.g., Gillborn, 2006; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), and indigenous epistemologies (e.g., Torres, 2019). The use of imagination as a theoretical framework in critical research allows for the potential for research to go beyond the present barriers that have historically limited the capacity for radical change (Hayes et al., 2015).
Methodology
In order to enact the critical science curricular practice of ends/means reasoning as a research method, critical research methods are used in combination to both evaluate and ideate the manifestation of belonging in education. The central research question this paper seeks to answer is ‘What possibilities emerge through queer belonging, and how can it be achieved as an educational reality?’ In this process, the ‘ends’ to which education ought to be are conceptualized to identify an idealized state where belonging is central to the educational experience. The identification of valued ‘ends’ is then used as a lens to anchor an exploration of pedagogical practices and theoretical viewpoints that can be used as the ‘means’ by which Queer theory can be applied to foster belonging in school settings. For this study, elements of critical autoethnography (Adams et al., 2016) and Imagination as Method (Hayes et al., 2015) are used in tandem to envision the valued ends. Then, a select interdisciplinary literature review unites pedagogical practices and epistemological perspectives with Queer theory and social justice work to develop intersectional means by which the valued ends can be achieved. Bringing imagination into educational research as a method and component of ethnographic work positions research outside of the confines of oppressive systems and “purposes us to partake in particular kinds of action that unblocks the ways being inscribed by scientific/enlightenment-era discourses and dominant narratives” (Hayes et al., 2015, p. 45). The scope of the selected interdisciplinary literature review was intentionally kept limited to focus on the three major domains that appeared through imagining the valued ends. Structuring the literature review to examine school systems, pedagogy, and educator perspectives supported finding relevant to the valued ends so as not to get lost in the possibility, but to provide succinct practical means that have the potential for more immediate change and progress towards the valued ends.
Valued Ends: Essentializing Queerness for Education
Examining the valued ends as to what education for the purpose of belonging ought to be requires an exploration of the existing systems that influence the feelings of belonging and the envisioning of a potential beyond our current reality. Drawing on reflections from my experiences in schools, in the roles of both student and teacher, as a foundation for the imagining of the valued ends by which queerness can foster educational belonging, three major components of education, including 1) school systems, 2) pedagogy, and 3) educator perspectives, emerged as identifiable catalysts for change and possibility. For each of these major components, a paragraph written guided by personal reflection is followed by paragraph(s) that enact imagination to identify the queered potential for school systems, pedagogy, and educator perspectives.
Queerness in School Systems
In education, formalized systems are used to both direct what we teach and how we teach it. Curriculum is expected to be peer-reviewed, evidence-informed, scientifically sound, and above all else must be perceived as legitimate by those who hold power (i.e., administrators, school board members, loud parents, and local politicians). We test students to determine the degree to which they can prove mastery of the systems that determine knowledge more than we test for their mastery of knowledge itself. The standardized test preparation programs that were used in my high school didn’t focus on preparing us with content knowledge. Rather, the goal was for us to learn strategies for how to ‘out-smart’ the test as opposed to actually being smart enough to score well. How can we truly expect people to learn information when we only need to know how to navigate the systems that have been given power through assessment? Teachers themselves aren’t even evaluated on their ability to truly teach in the deeper sense of the term; they are only evaluated to see if they can replicate practices that have been determined part of the privileged pedagogy. The authoritative power given to the accepted systems of order has reduced the role of the teacher to that of a parrot who mimics what they have been told and is rewarded when total accuracy is achieved.
Queering education requires a paradigm shift in what makes a ‘good teacher.’ Currently, a teacher's value is measured by their ability to transmit specific knowledge, meet educational standards, and manage their classroom with authority (Salazar, 2018). These metrics are not focused on the learning that is taking place; rather, the focus is on the systems of order that allow us to keep teachers in subordinate and powerless positions, where their goal is to fit into the perceived confines of a model teacher and better check the boxes on their evaluations. If we must evaluate teachers, then we should be using a more holistic understanding of what it means to be a teacher and all of the roles and responsibilities that a teacher takes on each and every day in their classroom. This would include their ability to prioritize the needs of their students (which can and should include intellectual and academic development), but also include their ability to individualize the understanding of who they are sharing their classrooms with, their ability to be a caregiver and create a safe and supportive environment for all students, and their implementation of a pluralistic understanding that embraces differences as an asset and source of knowledge rather than an obstacle that needs to be minimized and removed from academic spaces. This being said, imagining that education can fully embody queerness at every level, the need to evaluate teachers would go away. A queer perspective could dissolve the current binary structures and evaluations that label teachers as either good or bad, and make more space for teachers to come into the classroom and the role of a teacher in a uniquely authentic way that celebrates and prioritizes their identity, the community in which they teach, the students in their classroom, and their personal connections to education and the content they teach.
Queerness in Pedagogy
Pedagogy expands beyond the behaviors and practices that make up ‘how we teach’ and is influenced by our broader philosophy of education and larger belief systems in life. This can make learning about pedagogy challenging for pre-service teachers and changing one's pedagogy hard for experienced teachers. Our pedagogy is inherently profoundly personal, and anything that asks us to reconsider or reimagine not only how we teach in a classroom, but what we believe about schools, is not an easy process. This is further complicated by the position and power that we give to theory in praxis development. We are trained in a way that emphasizes the use of theories developed by others and approved by the academy as a whole to inform our practice and influence our praxis, but this only gives power in our psyche as teachers to the systems of order that actively minimize marginalized identities, perspectives, and knowledge. This is why the integration of varied critical pedagogical frameworks, like Freire's ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ (1970) and other critical approaches discussed in this paper, is not only important but essential to our work if we have any hope of actually achieving humanizing practices in the classroom.
Envisioning a classroom where critical Queer pedagogy is fully enacted in the typical functioning of the educational process positions emancipation from unjust and oppressive systems of knowledge as a fundamental pedagogical learning objective for each and every activity done in the classroom. Jürgen Habermas (1971) provided direction to the development of critical theory in identifying three main human interests that dictate individual and social behavior: 1) Technical interests, 2) Interpretive interests, and 3) Emancipatory interests When viewing power through the lens of Queer theory, as something that is dynamic and has the potential to change, the charge of emancipatory action becomes “enabling people to become conscious of the conditions that contribute to their oppression, and consequently to take constructive action that will produce social change” (Minton, 1997, p. 348). In a truly emancipatory state of democratic education, the goal for all students is to gain the ability to use knowledge to advance their personal social status and advance the collective societal notion of justice and belonging (Sumiati, 2022). Since Queer pedagogy has an intentional focus on disrupting coercive power structures in educational settings (Nemi Neto, 2018), queering one's pedagogical practices to reject the oppressive powers that shape schools can create both a physical and emotional space for students to see beyond oppressive structures and engage in the process of emancipating their minds (López Pereyra, 2020).
Queerness in Educator Perspectives
Queer theory in education also asks us as teachers and people-serving practitioners to reframe who we see as a ‘deserving’ student and people. Socially, everybody has developed prejudices based on the systems of power and oppression that dictate society (Delgado & Stefancic, 2023). Envisioning an educational system that embodies queerness and Queer theory can allow teachers to have more complex understandings of their students that transcend the current binary narrative that teachers and schools place on students. As a teacher, I was constantly expected to divide my students into clear groups; they were either passing or failing, well-behaved or trouble-makers, a pleasure to have in class or a student whom I had concerns about. All of these labels ultimately combine to determine if they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ students. In a queer space, without the comparative binary nature of ‘or,’ my understanding of each student could be uniquely authentic to who they truly are, as opposed to the narratives that other teachers and I put upon them. This could also open up more opportunities for students, since one facet of their identity at school wouldn’t dictate all others. Educators with queered perspectives could more easily see how a star athlete can also be passionate about the arts, how the student with poor attendance could have high scores on their standardized tests, and how the highly involved ‘star student’ might not be planning on attending a four-year college after graduation.
One's experiences in schools are one of the major contributors to the development of systems of order because we have intentionally designed schools to mirror social systems like communities, and the process of schooling is inherently social. When queer teachers are openly out, especially queer teachers who don’t explicitly conform to gender norms or other aspects of homonormativity, students can begin to integrate a more pluralistic understanding of sexuality and identity into the systems of order that dictate their interactions with the world at large. Having queer role models who are willing to break both heteronormative and homonormative stereotypes is important for all students (Connell, 2014). For queer students, it can help them see the full scope of queerness and not feel pressured to fit the ‘white gay stereotype’ that is purely aspirational and never quite attainable. It is also important for straight students to see queer role models to help them perceive queer individuals as normative in the systems of order we develop as we grow up. It is also important for both straight and queer teachers to visibly challenge facets of normativity when possible, to bring attention to the ability we all have to deviate from fixed systems of order that don’t fit our unique identities. Teachers are inherently positioned as role models, so when young people can see their role models breaking the norm, they might be more accepting of others who don’t conform to the normative systems of order.
Because the normative identity of a teacher is not void of other assumed identities, the ‘teacher’ identity can sit at odds with other facets of one's intersectionality. The more closely an individual can align with the normative identity of the profession, the easier time they will have with the process of internal and external identity negotiation. Identity negotiation “refers to those activities through which people establish, maintain, and change their identities” (Swann & Bosson, 2010, pg. 465). Pre-service and early career teachers go through the process of identity negotiation as they are starting their careers and discovering how to merge their personal and professional identities. Queer teachers must analyze their sexuality as a facet of their identity in this process. “The identity negotiation formulation suggests that most people learn to negotiate identities in ways that minimize tensions between their needs for agency, communion, and coherence” (Swann & Bosson, p. 452). For individuals with complex intersecting identities, the negotiation process gets further complicated as there are conflicting interests that must be negotiated within oneself (the internal) before beginning the negotiation with how others perceive you (the external).
Practical Means: Enacting Queer Belonging
When viewing these valued ends as a conceptualization of what queer education ought to be, we must identify systemic and pedagogical means by which this ethos of belonging can be achieved. Combining both theoretical and methodological literature helps identify tangible changes that can be made at all levels of the classroom and school to move education closer to an imagined reality that necessitates belonging and queerness as fundamental to the educational and personal development of all students to create a more inclusive and authentic society.
Building Identity and Intersectional Literacy
Informed by “Introductions/Orientations: Queer Pedagogies, Social Foundations, and Praxis” (Villaverde & Stachowiak, 2019).
A critical understanding and conceptualization of both identity and intersectionality is a literacy that we simply cannot afford future teachers to lack as they are preparing to work in community with students who have increasingly complex and interconnected identities. As a society, we have become slowly and selectively more accepting of complex identities, but in order for students to accept and embrace their authentic identities, they need to be in school settings that allow for individuality and belonging with teachers who are radically accepting. For teachers, this means they need to be supportive and understanding first and foremost. Youth are going through rapid changes in identity and understanding (Hammack et al., 2022), and embracing who you are is not an easy or linear process.
In order for teachers to be authentically supportive, they need to be knowledgeable. Knowledge is the only way to combat prejudice, so teachers should be actively working to learn and relearn about the students directly in their classroom and the variability of identities that are present in our modern, pluralistic society. This can include seeking out professional development that is centered around inclusive and equitable practices, staying relevant as to what is going on locally and socially, and even simply putting in the work to understand the language and terms that they should and should not be using. Schools should be actively supporting their teachers to learn more about their communities and the people who are in them, and if/when teachers are resistant or unwilling, the school should work to actively protect students when assigning classes and approving extracurricular duties to ensure they are being educated and supported by teachers who will truly value them in their fullest form.
Get a Triple-A Card-Ally, Advocate, and Activist
Informed by “Safe is Still Not Enough for LGBTQ + Students” (TEDx Talks, 2023).
As the larger forces that influence schools, which can include school boards, community groups, administrators, and government at all levels, are increasing their anti-queer rhetoric and practices (Kristova, 2024), it is becoming more important that teachers maintain and increase their support of queer students.
Teachers amping up their work to the level of
For teachers, remaining intersectional in their work is essential to the impact their allyship, advocacy, and activism can have in the school setting. Maintaining an intersectional and expansive approach to queerness positions activism to enact both affirmation and long-term collaboration between students and adults in the school (Cumming-Potvin, 2024), which can sustain larger community impact and acceptance for both queer and non-queer students.
Challenge the Accepted Assumptions
Informed by “Introduction: Queering Education” (Linville, 2017).
Teaching is a profession that, to this day, still holds gendered stereotypes and expectations. Historically, teaching has been seen as a job for women, and this impacts how we treat and see teachers today. Teachers are largely underpaid due to the same power imbalances and gender stereotypes caused by the systems of order that pay women less than men, leading to the women-dominated profession of teaching to have lower wages compared to other professions (Apple, 1985; Carroll et al., 2021). Even within schools, gendered norms dictate who should be teaching what courses: History, Physical Education, and Science are the masculine subjects, while women are expected to be the English, Art, and Foreign Language teachers (Sánchez-Cabrero et al., 2023). The same bias can be extended to extracurricular responsibilities and other stereotyped assumptions that are placed on teachers (Connell, 2014). Men should be the varsity coaches, and the women can be the junior varsity coaches or maybe the girls’ varsity coach if there isn’t a better-suited man for the job. Women should also be the club sponsors for the more unserious activities that might range from the yearbook to the theatre and art clubs. Women should also be there early and stay late, but if the men want to leave during their last period plan it's okay. By definition, queer truly means being counter-hegemonic, or at odds with the accepted norms (Grzanka, 2019), so one way to queer schools is to actively challenge these gendered norms when possible. Actively challenging the gendered norms in schools sets a precedent for the students that they have autonomy when it comes to decision-making. If students see their teachers actively and intentionally going against assumed stereotypes, it challenges the other sexist messaging they might receive from the world and demonstrates that they can plan their life based on following their passions and desires, even when they might be at odds with the perceived norms and behaviors.
Application of Findings
The practice of imagining valued ends for educational belonging and exploring practical means by which queerness can be used to create belonging aligns with Leonardi and Moses’ (2021) Queer Democratic Framework (QDF). This framework bridges three key components: 1) a multifaceted understanding of identity, 2) moving equity and justice beyond the abstract to create real systemic and policy change, and 3) emphasizing the relationship between theory, policy, and practice. The first two components of the QDF have been largely addressed by the valued ends/practical means analysis, but the third component, addressing theory, policy, and practice, has a unifying application to the critical praxis of educators and school officials. When applying key elements of a democratic education (Gutmann, 1987; Noddings, 1984, 2013), including the participatory, deliberative, non-repressive, and empathetic values of democracy, the intersections at which theory, policy, and practice align can provide insights as to where to start in developing a praxis of belonging. When applying an abolitionist teaching perspective, teacher preparation programs must also go through deliberate changes to better make space for pre-service teachers who don’t conform to the accepted archetype of the ‘ideal teacher’ (Riley & Solic, 2021). One such way to accomplish this is to identify the valued ends and practical means by which Queer theory and queerness are present in their teacher preparation programs. This will both make space for queer pre-service teachers and queer perspectives on education and belonging to foster a praxis of belonging as an inherent outcome for pre-service teachers.
Queer pedagogy and theory do not serve as a counter to other areas of criticality, rather it looks more specifically to the non-binary nature of the production of knowledge and how learning doesn’t conform to systems of order. Essentially, providing another lens to evaluate the work that is done in schools to prioritize holding space for things that might not conform easily to the traditional structures of education. The major components conceptualized in the valued ends can be a space where educators at all levels can begin to imagine an improved educational reality that essentializes belonging achieved through Queer theory, and the identified practical means provide a pathway by which educators can begin to move the needle. However, the findings themselves are only the start; the process of the valued ends/practical means analysis is where there is greater potential for the application of these findings. A queer positionality emphasizes the uniqueness of perspective and expression. Educators can start the process of applying Queer theory to their teaching to enact belonging by blending personal experience with imagination to envision the valued ends of what education can be for students. Then they can begin exploring and researching practical means by which the education system can start moving in that direction. This has the potential to be a powerful method to create authentic change in the system that prioritizes belonging for students.
Significance and Conclusion
The systems of knowledge and power that are interrogated by applying Queer theory are still perceived to hold the world together to this day, which, in turn, gets replicated within schools. We teach in a way that demands our students not only to see what they are being taught through narrow, ill-guided framings of knowledge, but also asks them to submit to the coercive powers that shape what is valued and devalued in both academic spaces and the world at large. Identity, at all levels, is one such system of order. Gender norms have been constructed to award and deny power. As has race, age, ability, language, and of course, sexuality. Although this is the way it has been done, it does not mean there is no opportunity to create change. School leaders and classroom teachers can be the catalysts for creating a school climate where students feel a sense of belonging (Ma, 2003). It has been observed that students achieve better academic and social outcomes when there is a greater sense of belonging (Arslan, 2019; Huang, 2022), and when looking specifically at queer students, higher levels of peer support in schools lead to similar improved educational outcomes (Castro & Sujak, 2014; Kosciw et al., 2022; Leung et al., 2022).
As educators, we have a responsibility to help drive systemic changes, both large and small, to improve the educational experience for all of our students. Even in school systems with only marginal systemic power given to teachers, intentional daily actions can help bring about the valued ends for educational belonging mediated by queerness and Queer Theory in schools. While belonging itself is a profoundly personal experience, finding systemic means that contribute to the feeling of belonging in school for all students can more holistically elevate the educational experience within schools. Students should not have to take on the weight of worrying about whether or not they belong, rather their primary concerns should be focused on experiencing the learning and preparing to be responsible and well-educated members of society. Seeing belonging as a valued end for what education ought to achieve and examining the practical means by which this can be achieved inspires hope for a future of education that makes belonging an essential element of the process of schooling.
Footnotes
Ethics Considerations
This article does not contain any studies with human or animal participants
Author Contribution(s)
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data Availability
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.