From neutrality to engagement: the modalities of understanding secondary teacher professionalism in dealing with LGBT issues

ABSTRACT This paper provides a framework for analysing teachers’ various modes of positioning towards LGBT students, generated from their understanding of the concept of teacher professionalism. The main research question of the empirical study, conducted through application of focus groups, is how secondary school educators understand the concept of teacher professionalism in dealing with LGBT issues within the context of secondary school as a place where sexuality is both explicitly present and a taboo. The results, analysed within a neutral-engaged dichotomy of teacher positioning when dealing with LGBT issues, and interpreted from a critical-pedagogical perspective, point to different modalities of understanding and practicing teacher professionalism, as well as to the unsustainability of the neutral orientation of teachers when making both commonplace and unpredictable pedagogical decisions, which are inevitably politicized.