Risk and possibility: Teachers’ perceptions of LGBT equalities work

This workshop session took place at the ITE/ECT 2025 Annual PGCE Conference Inclusion & Inspiration - Education for Social Justice. 17 January 2025. University of Manchester. This session drew on data from an ethnographic study of two UK primary schools – one that was and one that was not involved in a sexualities equalities project (No Outsiders) – to explore the effects of this intervention on teachers' perceptions of LGBT equalities work. The research found that for teachers not involved in No Outsiders, such work was difficult to imagine, particularly outside of a ‘bullying’ framework. Concerns around equalities pedagogy were articulated primarily in relation to perceived need; related prevalence (of ‘bullying’); and institutional and personal risk. Nonetheless, these teachers identified a range of factors as having the potential to make such work possible, revealing a whole school approach as key to conceivable and ‘doable’ equalities education.