Lesbians teachers: In what rays of silence can we find them?

Abstract

This exploratory, quanti-qualitative research is a product of a postdoctoral study cnducted at the Graduate Program of the Faculty of Education of the Federal University of Bahia. Characterized as a study of correlates, it focuses on experiences and narratives of lesbian teachers. Situated in the field of lesbofeminist studies, it apprehends the lesbian teacher as a political body, a person stigmatized by heterosexual society. Recognizing lesbian invisibility as a problem, a face of lesbophobia, perceived as structural violence that threatens, attacks, and kills women due to the intersection of gender, non-heterosexual sexuality, and race, among other markers of difference, the study questions where we can find lesbian teachers in rays of silence and obscurity. In search of answers, the objective is to analyze how the experiences of lesbian teachers are represented in studies available in the North American database ERIC - Education Resources Information Center. The methodology is inspired by the Systematic Search Flow method. The result is an open map that points out that the experience of violence suffered by lesbians in the workplace, and beyond, is reflected as “homophobia,” a fact that suggests a lack of recognition of the specificities of violence against lesbians, and suggesting that there is no safe existence for lesbian teachers.