An Examination of the (In)visibility of Sexual Orientation, Heterosexism, Homophobia, and Other LGBTQ Concerns in U.S. Multicultural Teacher Education Coursework

Heterosexism and homophobia permeate U.S. educational institutions. However, research heretofore has shown that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and queer (LGBTQ) concerns remain largely invisible in teacher education contexts. In an effort to better understand this phenomenon relative to multicultural education and related courses, we performed a content analysis on 41 syllabi from multicultural education courses taught in the United States with special attention to the extent to which LBGTQ concerns were included or omitted from the course designs. In addition, we examined data from a survey of 80 people who teach multicultural education courses in U.S. teacher credentialing programs to uncover both the likelihood that, and the nature by which, they incorporated LGBTQ concerns into their courses. We found that LGBTQ concerns often are invisible in multicultural teacher education coursework in the United States and that, when these concerns are covered, they generally are addressed in decontextualized ways that mask heteronormativity.