ABSTRACT

In this study, we focused on teachers’ knowledge and awareness of LGBT+ issues in a Catholic secondary school in Ireland. We explored the barriers teachers encounter that prevent them from being openly supportive of LGBT+ students. For this study, 40 teachers completed an online questionnaire, which was followed by a smaller focus group interview comprising 6 teachers. The findings demonstrate a lack of knowledge about LGBT+ issues among teachers, and the majority have not received any training related to this topic. This can be linked with their lack of awareness of policies, supports, and resources available to help LGBT+ students. The findings suggest a lack of self-awareness because some teachers were not supportive of issues that affect LGBT+ students but believed otherwise. It also is clear from the results that there are mixed perceptions of what is acceptable to discuss and support due to the Catholic ethos of the school. These findings reflect several barriers to supporting LGBT+ students and issues.

摘要

在本研究中，我们关注爱尔兰一所天主教中学的教师对 LGBT+ 问题的知识和意识。我们探讨了教师遇到的阻碍他们公开支持 LGBT+ 学生的障碍。在这项研究中，40 名教师完成了在线问卷调查，随后进行了由 6 名教师组成的小型焦点小组访谈。调查结果表明教师缺乏关于 LGBT+ 问题的知识，而且大多数人没有接受过与该主题相关的任何培训。这可能与他们对可用于帮助 LGBT+ 学生的政策、支持和资源缺乏认识有关。调查结果表明缺乏自我意识，因为一些教师不支持影响 LGBT+ 学生的问题，但不这么认为。从结果中也可以清楚地看出，由于学校的天主教风气，对于什么是可以接受的讨论和支持存在不同的看法。这些调查结果反映了支持 LGBT+ 学生和问题的几个障碍。