Sexuality in an Information Technology classroom

Abstract

This paper represents the beginning of an attempt to explore a diverse group of students’ views on educators coming out as lesbian or gay in a higher education classroom. The article first provides a brief overview of gender and sexuality as explored in the Information Technology (IT) and computing subject area in order to provide a local context for discussing coming out in an IT classroom. Next it describes classroom social relations focusing on gender and sexuality as related to the educator’s coming out. Students’ responses to a survey distributed by the author are discussed and questions specific to IT and other subject areas are raised for further research.