Ending Bullying and Harassment: The Case for a Queer Pedagogy

Abstract

This chapter presents research and conceptual approaches that support the case for integrating queer pedagogy in K-12 classrooms to promote school safety and reduce incidents of bullying and harassment. The first section presents definitions of the related concepts of gendered harassment, bullying, (hetero) sexual harassment, homophobic harassment, and harassment for gender nonconformity. The second section introduces queer pedagogy and how this approach can shift the way schools deal with issues related to violence, embodiment, gender, and sexuality. The third section addresses some of the legal and policy issues involved when addressing forms of bullying and harassment as well as how to use Freire’s concept of praxis to teach “queerly” to disrupt physical, emotional, and verbal violence linked to the heteronormative practices in schools. The chapter concludes by offering several ideas for immediate action and additional resources for further reading and pedagogical application.