Foundational Tenets and Challenges in Conceptualizing a Queer Curriculum Model

Educational research of a multicultural and anti-oppressive nature continues to focus primarily on gender and/or race, especially from feminist and post-colonial perspectives. However, educators increasingly call for curriculum models that acknowledge intersectional identity (Parsons & Brown, 2001). Administrators and teachers in schools frequently articulate frustration with educational research that does not leave the academy, employs an elite discourse, or lacks creativity, subjectivity, and humanism in favour of dubious notions of hard science and objectivity, captured in the problematic global ‘back-to-basics ’ movement. In particular, teachers question the failure of much research to reflect the realities of increasing diversity in their student population and daily lives. I see research as creative and reflective endeavours to better understand culture, and to share those insights with others. In this paper, thus, I inquire subjectively into the indefinable – a queer curriculum model. I use my implicit knowledge and experience as an educator-researcher of fourteen years to formulate ideas on what a queer curriculum model might resemble, so that other educator-researchers in the broad field of education might do the same