Journal Facts

Journal
Auto/Biography
ISSN
0967-5507
Volume
14
Issue
1

Article Facts

Title
`Queer Goings-on': An Autoethnographic Account of the Experiences and Practice of Performing a Queer Pedagogy
DOI
10.1191/0967550706ab027oa
Author
Mark Vicars (University of Sheffield, UK, aldous38 at btinternet.com)
Pages
21-40

Article Links

`Queer Goings-on': An Autoethnographic Account of the Experiences and Practice of Performing a Queer Pedagogy

Mark Vicars (University of Sheffield, UK, aldous38 at btinternet.com)

DOI: 10.1191/0967550706ab027oa

Abstract

In this paper, I use autoethnography to reconstruct scenes from my experiences of working as a teacher of English and Drama in an international British Curriculum Secondary school. I employ literary and poetic devices to create an impression of the experiences of performing a Queer pedagogy and focus on a series of incidents to tell of the ways in which the rigid dichotomies of identity are policed within educational settings. In this paper, I question one key incident in an attempt to illustrate the ethical and moral dilemma faced when the division between sexuality and pedagogy, teacher and student is breached. I attempt to tell of the relationship of the periphery to the centre and of the tensions that emerge when a heteronormative regime is resisted.

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