Coming out in the classroom: still an occupational hazard?

Authors

  • Eros R. de Souza Illinois State University
  • Mark Olson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18316/recc.v22i3.3963

Keywords:

Teacher Sexual Orientation, Teacher Credibility.

Abstract

In 2002, Russ, Simonds, and Hunt reported that coming out in the classroom was hazardous to gay instructors in the United States. We replicated their study in the same medium-sized North American university with a sample of 222 college students (71.7% White, 53.2% women, mean age = 19.66) who listened to a talk by a male speaker. Unknown to these students, we experimentally manipulated the sexual orientation of the speaker. In one section of a general education course, the speaker mentioned three times in passing the name of his same-sex partner (gay condition). In another section of the same course, the speaker mentioned three times the name of his other-sex partner (heterosexual condition). Immediately after the talk, students evaluated the speaker. Analyses using t-tests on teacher credibility ratings showed that students consistently rated the speaker in the heterosexual condition more positively than the speaker in the gay condition, which mirror Russ et al.’s findings published 15 years earlier. Chi-square analyses on the themes derived from the written comments showed mixed results. Students perceived the gay speaker as having “poor speech” skills, but they also perceived him to be more “honest and open” than the heterosexual speaker. Implications are discussed.

Author Biography

Eros R. de Souza, Illinois State University

Doutor em Educação pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, com estágio doutoral (SWE-CAPES) na Université Paris 8 - Vincennes-Saint Denis, Departamento de Filosofia. Mestre em Educação pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Graduado em Psicologia pela UNISINOS. Professor no Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação do UNILASALLE, na Linha de Pesquisa Formação de Professores, Teorias e Práticas Educativas e nos cursos de Pedagogia e Psicologia. Tem experiência profissional nas áreas de Educação e Psicologia. Atualmente pesquisa temas relacionados à formação de professores, práticas educativas em classes multisseriadas/heterogêneas, ensino-aprendizagem, cuidado de si, currículo, corpo. Tem publicações e pesquisas em formação de professores, interdisciplinaridade, estética, currículo, Análise de Discurso. É pesquisador desde 1999 do Grupo de Pesquisa Sobre Educação e Análise de Discurso (GPEAD) - UFRGS/CNPq, vinculado à Linha de Pesquisa Educação: Arte Linguagem Tecnologias (PPGEdu/UFRGS). Líder do Grupo de Pesquisa em Tecnopoéticas, Neuroestética e Cognição - UFRGS/CNPq, vinculado à Linha de Pesquisa Arte, Ciência e Tecnologia.

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Published

2018-01-09

Issue

Section

In Focus