Queer and Trans Perspectives on Teaching LGBT-themed Texts in Schools

Mollie V. Blackburn is a Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University, USA. Her research focuses on literacy, language, and social change, with particular attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and the teachers who serve them. Caroline T. Clark is a Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University, USA. Her research focuses on language and literacy practices in and outside of school and collaborative research with teachers, young people, and families for social action. Since 2004, she has co-led a teacher inquiry group with Mollie Blackburn committed to supporting LGBTQQ and gender creative students in schools. Wayne J. Martino, Ph.D., is Professor of Equity and Social Justice Education in the Faculty of Education at The University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research interests are in the fields of gender and sexual diversity studies in education with a current focus on supporting transgender, gender independent and gender expansive youth in schools.

• Introduction. Investigating LGBT-themed literature and trans informed pedagogies in classrooms 1. Teaching about sexual minorities and "princess boys": a queer and trans-infused approach to investigating LGBTQ-themed texts in the elementary school classroom 2. Gay penguins, sissy ducklings…and beyond? Exploring gender and sexuality diversity through children’s literature 3. Queering chapter books with LGBT characters for young readers: recognizing and complicating representations of homonormativity 4. Scenes of violence and sex in recent award-winning LGBT-themed young adult novels and the ideologies they offer their readers 5. The social importance of a kiss: a Honnethian reading of David Levithan’s young adult novel, Two Boys Kissing 6. Reading queer counter-narratives in the high-school literature classroom: possibilities and challenges 7. Exploring queer pedagogies in the college-level YA literature course 8. Learning from preservice teachers’ responses to trans-themed young adult literature: improving personal practice in teacher education 9. Queer and trans-themed books for young readers: a critical review