Queering the queer[s]: language teachers’ gender identities otherwise

Abstract

This paper narrates the life experiences of Felipe, Laura, and Julián, three language teachers who identify as queer (gay and lesbian, respectively). Through autobiographies and pláticas, the main characters of this huge story share their personal and professional journeys marked by the struggle, pain, and discomfort of inhabiting nonconforming gender identities in educational contexts, particularly situated in non-being zones (Fanon, 2009; Grosfoguel, 2013). This research was guided by a qualitative narrative inquiry approach within a decolonial path to explore the way our gender identities intersected with our positions as teachers and to know the extent to which we, as diverse subjects, made visible our gendered selves. The analysis focused on three key axes: neglecting, approving, and migrating, which represented the conflicts experienced by the protagonists when facing normalized homogenization and invisibility imposed by the heteronormative canon. These concepts allowed for the reconstruction of the conflicts they experienced in our teaching doings as well as in our positionings as queer professional selves, highlighting the way dominant structures discriminate, pathologize, and homogenize our essence and existence. The paper concludes with a body-political and emotional call: to affirm our existence as queer teachers, to claim the right to speak about our selves, and to reject the repetition of [hetero]normative models as unique binary system for acknowledgement.