Part of: Queering Education and Academia
Abstract:
Who gets to feel safe as a reader in school? What if the selected reading and literature are actually intended to be for your benefit; and yet you remain invisible, or worse, the subject of disdain? Conversely, what is it like to be in the company of friends and allies who want to know what it’s like to be you – who seek your insights so they can learn from you, laugh with you, and live with you? (Blackburn & Clark, 2011, p. 148)
Educational practices in Norway are governed by the core curriculum of 2020. It states that education should build on “values that unite the Norwegian society” and constitute the “foundation of our democracy” (LK20 CC, Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2017, p. 4). To this end, the core curriculum outlines certain fundamental values that are to be embedded in all educational practices, such as human dignity; identity and cultural diversity; critical thinking and ethical awareness; democracy and participation. However, the ambiguity of the values necessitates interpretation, negotiation and operationalisation by teachers and teaching materials.
This paper examines one such interpretational practice. The textbooks for Norwegian and English subjects in lower and upper secondary school are an amalgamation of different text ranging from literary excerpts to texts about current issues. Furthermore, they contain paratexts such as author biographies or writing tasks. Using Dorrit Cohn’s concept of “the second author” (1999), the paper focuses especially on the discursive interchange between the literary excerpts and the paratexts, and argues that although well intended, the books engage in discursive constructions of “the other” that in fact uphold and perpetuate cultural and historical power structures. Futhermore, the paper posits that this world view can be considered a hidden curriculum (Jackson, 1968), existing in the books alongside the seemingly inclusive materials that align with CC values. Using CDA and thematic analysis, the paper posits that the paratexts in this way represent a discourse of incorporation, rather than a discourse of levelling in representations of LGBTQ subjects and themes. This means that although queer subjects are included in the books, they remain constructed as “the other”, with potentially detrimental effects on queer students (Hellesund, 2008; Nadal, 2013; Nadal et al., 2011; Nadal et al., 2010). Inclusion then, is insufficient.
The paper examines how the construction of the other is done predominantly through four main discursive devices: Stereotyping, i.e. reductionist portrayals of queer subjects; gendering, i.e. assigning gendered pronouns to texts without such pronouns; omission, i.e. failing to acknowledge queer subjects and authors, and lastly, negativity, i.e. the use of negative slurs in literary texts. Furthermore, the paper argues that new pedagogical perspectives and ways of resisting can be found in queer theory and norm critical pedagogy, shifting the perspective from merely including minority voices in textbooks to critically examining the mechanisms and structures in society that uphold and perpetuate existing power imbalances (Kulick, 2004; Røthing, 2020), i.e. embracing a discourse of levelling rather than a discourse of incorporation.
Blackburn, M. V., & Clark, C. T. (2011). Becoming Readers of Literature with LHBT Themes – In and out of classrooms. In Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (pp. 148–163). Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
Cohn, D. (1999). The distinction of fiction. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hellesund, T. (2008). Identitet på liv og død. Spartacus forlag.
Jackson, P. W. (1968). Life in classrooms. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Kulick, D. (2004). Queerteori, performativitet och heteronormativitet – några grundläggande begrepp. In A.-C. Olsson & C. Olsson (Eds.), I den akademiska garderoben (pp. 21–35). Bokförlaget Atlas.
Kunnskapsdepartementet. (2017). Core curriculum – values and principles for primary and secondary education. Laid down by Royal Decree on 1 September 2017 Retrieved from https://www.udir.no/overordnetdel?lang=eng
Nadal, K. L. (2013). That’s so gay! Microaggressions and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (1 ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14093-000
Nadal, K. L., Issa, M.-A., Leon, J., Meterko, V., Wideman, M., & Wong, Y. (2011). Sexual Orientation Microaggressions: “Death by a Thousand Cuts” for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth. Journal of LGBT Youth, 2011(8:3), 234–259.
Nadal, K. L., Rivera, D. P., & Corpus, M. J. (2010). Sexual orientation and transgender microaggresjons in everyday life: Experiences of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals. In W. D. Sue (Ed.), Migroaggressions and marginality; Manifestation, dynamics, and impact (pp. 217–240). Wiley & Sons.
Røthing, Å. (2020). Mangfoldskompetanse og kritisk tenkning : perspektiver på undervisning (1. utgave. ed.). Cappelen Damm akademisk.
