Working towards LGBTIQ-inclusive education: perceptions of pre-service teachers’ comfort and emotional experience

This study explored Master of Teaching pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) feelings of comfort and more broadly, their emotional experience as they prepare to work in classrooms with LGBTIQ students. Within the context of a broader mixed methods research project, PSTs were surveyed, and data were combined with a focus group (total participants n = 42). This paper reports on the qualitative data collected. Theoretically, Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach was used to elicit information about the PSTs’ emotional experience (perezhivanie). Important findings indicate that PSTs’ past experiences influence their understanding of LGBTIQ content and their willingness to transform their developing pedagogy. Systemic tensions around language and context contributed to challenging emotional experiences when PSTs were unable to mitigate the issues. It is argued that comfort is an initial starting point, but perezhivanie provides a lens to examine and support a broader understanding of the institutional structures which constrain PSTs when working with LGBTIQ students.