Affirming Sexual Diversity in Two New Zealand Secondary Schools: Challenges, Constraints and Shifting Ground in the Research Process

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores what it means to work towards shifting school cultures in order to affirm sexual diversity within the contexts of conducting research within two New Zealand secondary schools. The author charts the series of shifts in thinking and action that she has undergone as to how best to accomplish changes given the challenges that emerged during the research process. The constraints which needed to be negotiated included the ways in which understandings of sexuality and same sex desire and schooling are framed, how the roles of schools and teachers are understood, the structural realities of schooling institutions, the micro culture of the school and the macro educational context. The intertwined theoretical and methodological challenges that emerged at each stage of the research process are explored. The author shows how these were negotiated, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, in the process of conducting this research.