Rethinking Silence as Support: Normalizing Lesbian and Gay Teacher Identities Through Models and Conversations in Student Teaching

ABSTRACT In the vein of action research, the author examines his practice of matching lesbian and gay student teachers with a lesbian or gay cooperating teacher for field placement. This article addresses several questions. In what ways, if any, do lesbian and gay teachers help new teachers cope with and interrupt homophobia? How do they help student teachers to negotiate teacher and sexual identities? What role, if any, do they play as new teachers make decisions about sharing their sexual orientation to others in school, particularly students? Although student teachers appreciate their cooperating teachers as role models, they find a lack of conversation with them about negotiating identities as both teachers and as lesbian or gay leads to missed opportunities or unintended learning. Student teachers struggled to translate their cooperating teachers' methods of coming out to their circumstances.