Sexuality and Queer Theory in the Social Studies

This chapter explores ways that social studies researchers understand connections, tensions, and possibilities present when sexuality (read as sexual orientation) and queer theory are utilized to combat heteronormativity in schools/curriculum. There is growing awareness among researchers/scholars about research/curricular connections between sexuality and the social studies. Research indicates that in limited, but significant ways, social studies teachers include information about the roles played by selected lesbian and gay people during specific historical moments, and some teachers are discussing current, national debates about marriage equality, anti-bullying campaigns, and the explicit acknowledgment of lesbians and gay men serving in the military. Largely absent from these conversations are bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified individuals. The chapter will also explore the use of queer theory in the social studies and how it may potentially add more nuanced understandings of the aforementioned topics and how it may open new questions and lines of research for future generations of social studies scholars.