Language, Sexuality and Education

Description

Presenting a range of data obtained from secondary schools in the UK and US, this path-breaking book explores the role played by language in constructing sexual identities. Analysing the often complex ways in which homophobia, heterosexism and heteronormativity are enacted within school contexts, it shows that by analysing language, we can discover much about how educators and students experience sexual diversity in their schools, how sexual identities are constructed through language, and how different statuses are ascribed to different sexual identities.

Helen Sauntson is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at York St John University. Her books include New Perspectives on Language and Sexual Identity (2007), Approaches to Gender and Spoken Classroom Discourse (2012), and Global Perspectives and Key Debates in Sex and Relationships Education (2016).

'An outstanding piece of scholarship. Her meticulous, queer linguistically informed analyses of communicative practices in educational contexts reveal graphically that sexuality-related discrimination and invisibility still form harmful discourses that systematically affect learners and learning in negative ways. A seminal text for queer applied linguistics and an important addition to the field of language and sexuality studies.' Heiko Motschenbacher, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen