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Recently, the聽聽(AATE)鈥攖he peak professional body for Australian English teachers鈥攑ublished a special issue of the journal聽聽entitled 鈥淟ove in English.鈥� It addressed the continued marginalisation of some genders and sexualities within the classroom.聽The聽 reflected that, even after the legal advent of marriage equality, 鈥渟ome kinds of love and ways of talking about love are more dominant than others.鈥�

One in the special issue analysed sample text lists provided by the聽聽(ACARA). The article found only two of the 21 fiction texts portrayed non-heterosexual protagonists, named characters, experiences, or relationships. Before you go imagining radical queer literature stealthily making its way into the secondary classroom, the texts in question were聽听补苍诲听.

More than a debate of literary merits

An extensive amount of has demonstrated that schools are enjoyable and productive places for some students, but not others. As much as we would like to think otherwise, it鈥檚 clear from this body of work that schools do not serve all members of the population equally well. Compounding this issue is the fact that, in addition to teaching academic skills, schools themselves are sites of learning about social, cultural, political and economic positions, rights and possibilities. Schools can either double-down on social inequalities or they can institute attitude change.

Schools are lagging behind the current conversations about gender and sexuality that are going on in the wake of marriage equality. Many policymakers and politicians are reluctant to address issues involving youth at all, let alone sexually and gender-diverse youth.

The AATE鈥檚 focus on love, like the marriage-equality debate, depressurises things a little, but it鈥檚 clear that the test of classroom tolerance is no longer sexual orientation but gender diversity. This is a narrative regularly occurring in some corners of the media 鈥� one need only look at this week鈥檚 coverage of the AATE issue in , the聽 and to realise that the debate is about much more than just the merits of the literary canon.

The situation in schools today

Consider the situation of the many Australian school students who consider themselves sexually or gender diverse.聽聽study of over 700 LGBTIQ+ young people indicated that:

• 94% had heard homophobic language at school, with 58% of these young people hearing this kind of language daily.
• 45% of participants had also witnessed school-based physical harassment of classmates who were perceived as being sexually and/or gender diverse.

These findings are consistent with other research that indicates that homophobic violence is increasing in Australian schools. The 1998 鈥樷�� report indicated that 69% of sexually or gender diverse young people reported homophobic violence. In 2004 this figure rose to 74%, and by 2010 it was 80%. Don鈥檛 let anyone tell you that these kids have it easy at school.

Reading as a 鈥榮urvival art鈥�

Being provided with a safe learning environment is not the only thing that queer young people are being denied; they are also being denied the opportunity to learn about the histories and experience of people like themselves.

础蝉听, 鈥淒iscrimination can be perpetuated by what is present鈥攁nd what is noticeably absent鈥攊n the curriculum.鈥� As a result of these processes of exclusion, queer kids become very adept at reading between the lines. This kind of reading, it turns out, is a survival art, alchemising shame and damage into love and self-respect.

Queer inclusions in curricula have the potential to make a meaningful difference to schooling environments, especially to understanding and confronting inequalities. This is as it should be, since the entire national English curriculum identifies as its core purpose teaching young Australians to contribute to 鈥�.鈥�

Why school texts require greater diversity

The literary texts that students spend time on in school allow opportunities to explore different lives and life chances. Even when the texts are canonic, they can still be alternative, as has influentially argued.

Think about the queer subtexts of Euripides. Think Virgil. Think Plato and Socrates. How about Marlowe, Spenser, Milton or Shakespeare? Or Dickens, Dickinson, James, Melville, Proust, Wilde, Woolf?

One of the most powerful things about literature is its capacity to undo itself. The canon is always a cannon. Taught well, literature encourages new ways of apprehending difference. Even taught badly, literature allows students to safely explore their beliefs and test the commonsense truths that are conveyed all around them in non-literary forms that pride themselves on transparency.

One reason to ensure that the recommended reading for secondary students includes texts with transparently queer characters is that it allows them to push back against the overwhelming social proposition that queer young people are inherently 鈥渁t risk.鈥� That鈥檚 what frightens parents: we know that from our own teenage comings out.

It鈥檚 time to include young people

There is that the wellbeing, mental health and educational achievement of LGBTIQ+ young people is often poorer than their cisgender and heterosexual peers. But it鈥檚 important to acknowledge the resilience, strength and joy of queer students too. Queer kids and the people who love them need to know they can survive and thrive while we wait for the ideal of an inclusive Australia to arrive.

We all need help with this and books are a good place to start. Simply setting texts that present diversity, however,聽聽teachers will support their messages, that students won鈥檛 resist and reject them, or that the books won鈥檛 perpetuate negative attitudes towards queer people. Diversity can no more be guaranteed than love. Not even the love of books.

Perhaps a more useful way to approach this issue would be to ask students themselves what they want to read. At the University of Sydney, we are actively working with young people and to understand what they鈥檙e interested in and what research they think would benefit them.

Rather than continuing to make decisions on behalf of youth, we are determined to open more channels for them to tell us about their wants and needs in education, and more broadly. Young people are often a topic of discussion. It鈥檚 time for them to be included in discussions, and discussion around the school curriculum should not be an exception.

is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and an internationally known scholar in feminist studies, lesbian/gay studies and queer theory. teaches in the and is currently completing a book on gay marriage comedies. is an expert on gender, sexuality and education in the .

A shorter version of this article appeared on as 鈥�.