Queering High School: An Ethnodramatic Inqueery on Youth Experiences of Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Harassment and Bullying

• Author / Creator

  Tomczyk, Patrick

• “Queering High School,” was a queer ethnodrama on the lived experience of LGBTQ youth in Alberta high schools that explored their experiences of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. This ethnodrama, conducted through a queer lens, which I refer to as an ethnodramatic inqueery, was grounded in arts-based research, queer theory as an augmentation of critical pedagogy, and ethnography and theatre. The aim was to produce an authentic performance of lived experiences to a live audience. This is a medium wherein participants become co-researchers, and the data from ethnographic interviews is transformed into a script, which is then performed to an audience. The intention of this type of social justice research is that participants become empowered to share their struggles, and thereby raise a queer
  conscientization to the larger LGBTQ and school communities.
  My primary research question was: What are the lived experiences of LGBTQ youth in Alberta High Schools related to homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic harassment and
  bullying? And the secondary question was: How can queer ethnodrama serve as an effective tool to create more inclusive schools? The data that was uncovered through this study demonstrated that heteronormativity and cisnormativity perpetuate systems of oppression, as they are woven into school culture and the hidden curriculum. Heteronormativity and cisnormativity operate through manifestations of homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic bullying and harassment, which have detrimental effects for LGBTQ youth. This study advocates that ethnodramatic inqueery can be utilized as an empowering
  pedagogy that gives agency to sexual and gender minority youth and that it can be employed to raise queer issues for the wider queer community that may not have been recognized through
  other forms of traditional research.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Queer Pedagogy
  • Critical Theory
  • Queer Theory
  • Policy
  • Harassment
  • Research-Based Theatre
  • Queering High School
  • Bullying
  • Cisnormativity
  • Privilege and Oppression
  • Heteronormativity
  • Critical Pedagogy
  • Arts-Based Research
  • Ethnodrama
  • LGBTQ
  • Ethnotheatre
  • Microaggressions
  • Minority Stress
  • Curriculum
  • Pedagogy
  • Homophobia Biphobia Transphobia
  • High School
  • Social Justice
  • Power
  • School Culture
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Ethnodramatic Inqueery
  • Ethnography
  • Intersectionality
  • Identity Politics
  • Performance

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-b3hw-np36

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.