ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates intersections between sexism and homophobia in educational settings. Schools have been identified as places where girls, gender variant, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and related communities (LGBT+)-identifying young people report routinely experiencing discrimination through discursive practices in schools. This chapter explores these issues by drawing on a recent research project which conducts a detailed and systematic examination of the diverse ways that language can play a role in constructions of gender and sexual identities in school contexts. I argue that a queer approach to intersectionality can provide a particularly helpful theoretical framework for examining how normative and non-normative constructions of gender and sexual identity are enacted through and inscribed in language practices in schools, and how these language practices may affect particular discourses of gender and sexuality. In the empirical section of the chapter, I analyse data comprising spoken interactional data taken from Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons, analysed using critical discourse analysis, within an overarching intersectional approach. The analysis focuses on how language in the data works as a form of social practice which can include and exclude certain gender and sexual identities in classroom settings. The chapter’s conclusion considers the implications of the preceding analysis and discussion with a specific focus on how to make visible gender and sexual diversity issues in education and how to support the needs of learners of diverse sexual identities.
