ABSTRACT
Studies have shown that globally the dominant sexuality discourses in schools are predominantly heteronormative and that queer students often experience marginalisation and discrimination. This is in stark contrast to the progressive laws and regulations for the protection and rights of LGBTQ+ people that have been introduced in many countries during the last decades. Iceland and South Africa are no exception to this rule. Both countries have been depicted as progressive in terms of LGBTQ+ rights. However, schools in these countries have not followed suit. In this chapter we therefore give an example of how drama-inspired pedagogy can create what we define as queer transformative spaces in schools. We specifically draw on Fraser’s (1990) and Warner’s (2002) conceptualisations of counter-publics and Boal’s (1995) writings on the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). Our data is based on an ethnographic research in different high schools in Iceland and South Africa with the aim of exploring how the students who participated in the Boalean drama workshop sessions experienced it, and whether their attitudes (ways of thinking) towards sexuality and gender diversity changed during the sessions. We also discuss whether the sessions created some kind of queer/transformative counter-space, in which the prevailing (hetero)norms are questioned and/or disturbed.
