Elementary pre-service teachers and homophobia: curricular changes making a difference

This study describes research done with elementary pre-service teachers and the Education Outreach Project of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA). The study summarizes research on the impact this Outreach Project had on these teacher candidates' intersecting views of gender and sexuality. The presentation will share fmdings from this case study and the Project's implementation in a large, comprehensive university teacher education program. It investigates how pre-service teachers bring to school their constructed meanings of gender and sexuality, and how the implementation of the Project changed pre-service teachers' views of misogyny and homophobia. This study continues a dialogue about how to address issues of gender and sexuality in the classroom and how elementary school teachers might better be able to approach these topics in standards-driven appropriate ways.