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"Permission to Talk About It"

Narratives of Sexual Equality in the Primary Classroom

University of Vigo, Spain

Elizabeth Atkinson

University of Sunderland, United Kingdom

Based on practitioner interviews and action research, this article explores heteronormativity in U.K. primary schools, providing a performance venue where teachers' voices can be heard. Our particular focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality in the primary school makes the voices of minority practitioners and equalities activists, generally expected to be silent in the school context, appear to sound particularly loud. Shifting the metaphor slightly from the oral to the visual realm, the unexpected visibility of those who were meant to remain invisible lends our participants what Patai calls surplus visibility; as the "Other," they are forced to either disappear or appear larger than life, to keep silent, or scream. We have woven our participants' voices into an ethnographic narrative based on Patai's notion of surplus visibility, and the resulting play script is meant for public performance.

Key Words: heteronormativity • surplus visibility • primary teachers

This version was published on May 1, 2009

Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 15, No. 5, 876-892 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1077800409332763


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