@QueerSchoolArchive
Queer (at) School Archive
A catalogue of survival, joy and connection from & for LGBTQIA+ students, educators & parent/carers in Scotland <3
This is the rolling gallery of open-source contributions to the archive, updated and reformatted weekly. Find out more here.
Dec 2022: I'm Binx, [she/they please] I'm an extremely excitable fool with a love for all things spooky and weird. I live in Scotland and attend my wonderful school with my friends. Also I'm a mega nerd and know many different folklore storys and have a habit to go off on a tangent
These screenshots contain my responses to the questions asked on the archive bit where you write. It will make sense if they send in order. The one in which I mention my phone comes first. Just incase!
June 2022: I'm Jacqui, a graduate who attended high school in Scotland nearly a decade ago, and I am still recovering. Non-binary, white , queer , Jewish and disabled. High school was a minefield. With time progressing, being out wasn't technically dangerous but it made the ordeal a little bit more difficult. Unfortunately not even with simply uncomfortable homophobic class mates or accepting but not respecting teaching staff. Worse was the fellow queers discovering themselves alongside you. Resentment, deep set unlearned attitudes, meant infighting was the norm. You were attacked from all sides. It's fortunate to see out teachers and fluid chill gen z and their already open ideas of gender and sexualities. I have faith in the future, despite the structures of the institute of schooling being inherently against us.
May 2022: I'm Steve (he/they) and am an openly queer and disabled senior leader in a high school in the West of Scotland. I have taught in various sectors and faith schools during my nearly thirty years of experience in education. Currently I work with student and newly qualified teachers, and have the honour to co-ordinate the Diversity, Equalities and Inclusion strategy in the school I currently work in and represent queer and disabled teachers via various Scotland wide working groups.
May 2022: I am Elle (she/her), a mid-twenties, white, lesbian, catholic, music-teaching woman. I work in a, predominantly white, Scottish state school where a large percentage of my young people come from a deprived background.
June 2022: I am David, an Early Years educator in Scotland. I have conducted action research in the field of LGBTQ+ education in early years settings, which provides practical ways of supporting families and implementing such an approach effectively.
This artifact is the features of highly effective practice guide, which I created to support Early Learning and Childcare settings.
May 2022: I am Jamie (she/her), a white middle-class lesbian from Scotland. I studied Primary Education for my undergraduate degree and completed a masters in Applied Gender Studies. I have worked in primary schools throughout my degree on placements and researched LGBT inclusive education in Scottish primary schools during my MSc.
Shown here is is an image of work that a friends class did when she taught them about pride.
I had helped her to understand how best to teach this topic, and it was really rewarding to see understanding put into practice.
Nov 2022: robo rebecca - mixed race trans fairy girl from the west of scotland. 17. music, art, video games and hiding in the library
i made this collage because it's true. i do not know how i would make it through school each day if i didn't spend at least one block in the library and read my own books during class...
May 2022: I am Betty (she/her) an African American queer neurodivergent gender nonconforming woman who has been an Arts Educator for over 10 years in NYC public schools.
July 2022: I'm Tam, a queer educator from a working-class background. I grew up in Scotland in the 80s - before 'LGBTQI+ inclusive education' became bold policy statements, good intensions, or repeated acronyms.Schools direct us. Looking back, and forward, I'm interested in educational redirections, in finding queer ways through the blocks, tracks and usual entries or exits.
Here is a retrospective mapping of my previous school, about 25 yrs since I attended. At the time I didn't have the language or knowledge to say I was 'gender nonconforming' - but I understood very well the consequences of not getting it 'right'. I just wasn't sure I fitted into right, which seemed highly feminised and equated with being good/quiet/achieving/appearing... My best friend came from a BAME background. We never had that acronym, just as we never really had LGBTQI+. We would walk around and around the school every break, and for the whole hour at lunch time, stopping only in our favourite hiding places. We weren't scared though, we were on the move and building up momentum...
May 2022: I am Maude, a queer, white, working/middle-class hybrid Scottish ex-teacher. I taught in primary schools in London for a decade in the 1990s. I continue to work/study in Education in Scotland.
Below is a memory of a joyful incident of gender non-conforming in a primary classroom in which I was the teacher.
April 2022: I am Ray (she/her), a gender nonconforming, queer white middle-class Jewish woman who has been a teacher and educator for over 15 years at public high schools in New York City and Boston, USA.
May 2022: My name is Kurt (he/him) I am a gay white middle-class man originally from the United States, but currently living in Scotland attending the University of Strathclyde for a PGDE in Secondary English. I plan to remain in Scotland following completion in the program and pursue pupil support as a career. Both of my placements thus far took place at Glasgow schools with LGBTQ+ inclusive policies.
