Intersections of class and sexuality in the classroom

This research note aims to address concerns about schools as sites where students wrestle, materially and subjectively, with classed based notions of femininity, the promotion of heterosexuality, and the support of hetero-normative, middle class families against and in contrast with their own working class families, identities and experiences. Two relatively neglected issues in education, those of sexuality and class, are addressed in order to highlight the interconnections in living out these often analytically separated categories. This piece draws upon the findings of an ESRC funded project 'Working class lesbians: classed in a classless climate', which examines the life experiences and identities of self-identified working class lesbians in the UK.