Exploring LGBTQ+ teacher professional identity through the power threat meaning framework

In addition to the mounting stresses associated with teaching in the UK resulting from decades of neoliberal reform (Ball, 2021), lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) teachers experience a range of challenges to their professional identity from institutions that perpetuate the gender binary and hegemonic heteronormativity. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of how these teachers can be better supported to thrive in education settings. To begin to address this, this pilot study employs the Power, Threat, Meaning Framework (PTMF) with five LGBTQ+ teachers. The main findings from this study are that teachers experience power as a form of self-surveillance and policing but also positively, as a tool to reclaim space for positive representation. Threats came principally from media and parents and impacted participants’ sense of inclusion/exclusion in practice. Finally, participants made meaning of their experience through channelling their LGBTQ+ activism into EDI leadership roles, reclaiming space as a role model and using visual tokens to prompt ‘micro-moments’ of connection. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of the PTMF for future research to support LGBTQ+ teachers in practice and that the rigid nature of the framework may benefit from a more holistic approach to data analysis.