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.本次工作坊环节于2025年1月17日在曼彻斯特大学举办的ITE/ECT 2025年度PGCE大会“包容与启发：社会正义教育”中开展。本研讨依托针对英国两所小学的民族志研究数据展开——其中一所参与了性取向平等项目（No Outsiders），另一所未参与该项目——旨在探讨该干预举措对教师群体关于LGBT平等教育工作认知的影响。调研结果显示，对于未参与No Outsiders项目的教师而言，此类平等教育工作往往难以推进，尤其是脱离“欺凌”框架的场景中。教师们主要围绕三个维度阐明对平等教育教学实践的顾虑：对相关教育必要性的认知、（欺凌）现象的普遍程度，以及机构与个人层面的风险。尽管如此，这些教师仍指出了一系列可推动此类教育工作落地的潜在因素，并揭示出全校统筹模式是实现可落地、可推行的平等教育的核心关键。