FRIDAY APRIL 18, 7pm
toronto women's bookstore
73 harbord st.
all welcome. we regret our bathroom is not wheelchair accessible.

Because Catholic doctrine about homosexuality is contradictory and fundamentally homophobic, some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) teachers find themselves having to deny their sexuality and resort to hiding in a metaphorical Catholic "closet" when teaching in Canadian Catholic schools. Educational researcher Tonya Callaghan employs a multi-method qualitative framework to uncover how homophobia is institutionalized in these schools. Callaghan first theorizes the problem and examines pertinent Catholic documents as well as key Canadian legal decisions. Then, using interviews with six LGBTQ teachers and her own experience as a lesbian teacher,
Callaghan retells the teachers' stories in the form of life-narrative vignettes. This varied research design provides much needed insight into a previously untold aspect of Canadian schooling. It offers a valuable perspective that may be beneficial to LGBTQ teachers and their colleagues, school administrators, government officials, teachers' unions, and human
rights activists. This book also may be of interest to researchers in the fields of education, sociology, law, ethics, sexuality studies, and religion.

About Tonya Callaghan:
Tonya Callaghan has published articles in several education-related Canadian and Australian journals. She has over ten years teaching experience in secondary schools throughout Canada and Europe in both rural and urban, Catholic and non-Catholic environments. A recipient of a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, she is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.