EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND QUEER EDUCATORS: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS OF INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

Abstract

This collection represents a plethora of emergent perspectives on queer educators. We begin this collection starting in Canada with Tonya Callaghan’s empirical study, which illustrates the current struggles facing queer educators in Catholic schools in Alberta and

Educational Administration and Queer Educators

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Ontario. Jan Buterman uses life narrative as a transgender teacher in Alberta to demonstrate the “Meantime” that targets gender variance. Next, Kaela Jubas points out how internationalization strategies have implications for queer educators working at post-secondary institutions, and uses the University of Calgary as an example. This collection continues with the transnational work of Robert Mizzi, which points out the difficulties for gay men teaching internationally in adult education settings and compares the experiences of gay male expatriates working in Kosovo with gay male immigrants working in Toronto. This collection then takes another international turn in order to learn of some of the emergent issues facing queer educators in other countries and as a means to motivate further Canadian scholarship. Mitsunori Misawa brings attention to gay male professors of colour in the United States, and illustrates how both racism and homophobia intersect in the workplace despite the presence of equity policies. Last, we draw attention to recent developments in Australia, where Tania Ferfolja and Efty Stavrou present research from a national survey of lesbian and gay male K–12 teachers and their experiences creating a queer- positive culture and climate. As editors, we were thrilled to receive each of these papers as they advance the topic of queer educators and break new ground for further theory and research. We recognize that this collection gauges the current climate for queer educators in different work settings and realize that more work is to be done if we are to actually develop pluralistic and inclusive educational environments in Canada and elsewhere.