Bethy Leonardi
Biographic Data
| ID | 1606135 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bethy Leonardi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bethy |
| FAMILY NAME | Leonardi |
| SIGNATURE | LEONARDI B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado Boulder |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4052-2765 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The promise of inclusive curriculum policy
Despite the growing tide of discriminatory executive orders and educational policies in the US, Colorado is one of a handful of states to pass legislation mandating the inclusion of minoritized communities in public school curriculum. Curious about how Colorado educators are making sense of public discourse around HB19-1192, we draw from Tuck (2018) to explore the theories of change that guide educators’ implementation efforts. By analyzing surve…
Understanding democratic education policy queerly
The aim of this paper is to bring together concepts and commitments from both liberal and queer theories with the purpose of designing an integrated framework for equity-focused education policy analysis and implementation. In essence, we aim to build a conceptual bridge between queer and liberal democratic theories and to develop what we call a “queer democratic framework” for policy analysis and implementation. We use the case of the Fair Accur…
Beyond Bathroom Bills and the Gender Identity Debate
Schools and districts across the country have been thrust into the political limelight as they grapple with sometimes competing policy messages about the education of transgender and gender expansive students. Drawing on 2 years of survey data from families of transgender and gender expansive youth in one mountain state, this article uses critical trans politics to examine the ways the current policy climate aligns with the supports schools provi…
A Reflection on Engaged Scholarship
While the policy distractions outlined in this collection manifest in myriad ways—and our authors examine them through a wide range of lenses and analytic tools—we were struck as an editorial team by the commonalities they share. What is clear throughout these articles is that scholars, most centrally, raise the ubiquitous power of policy distraction as it relates to ignoring systems and structures that serve to maintain normativity in many forms…
Perpetuating Inequalities
The 2021 Politics of Education Yearbook brings together scholars from diverse theoretical orientations—including policy studies, critical trans politics, and Critical Race Theory—to explore the politics of distraction within education policymaking. This introductory article previews the work included in the Yearbook and presents a grounding framework for policy distraction, which we define as a persistent focus on a narrowly defined set of policy…
Cultivating a Queer Mindset
Background/Context A significant body of research on gender and sexual diversity in education has called on teachers to “move beyond inclusion” of LGBTQ+ voices in curriculum by queering their practice and “disrupting cis-heteronormativity.” Few studies have focused on the ways that disrupting cis-heteronormativity is challenging work for teachers to engage. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this case study, we focus on patter…
A Pretty Queer Thing
Studying educators' processes of learning to queer their practice has prompted us to think differently about our own praxis as teacher educators. Thinking differently has meant bringing the assumptions of queer theory and pedagogy to bear on our understanding of what is involved for teachers as they engage with difficult knowledge surrounding gender and sexual diversity in schools. In other words, it has meant organizing our approach to professio…
Complicating What We Know
This article examines the complex, deeply personal processes that elementary educators engage as they learn to become inclusive practitioners of gender and sexual diversity (GSD). We complicate literature that highlights structural barriers and negative influences such as lack of administrative support and homophobic attitudes as key factors that constrain educators' willingness and ability to enact inclusive praxis. We argue that preparing educa…
Teachers’ professional learning to affirm transgender, non-binary, and gender-creative youth
This paper critically examines the professional learning needs called for by educators working to support transgender, non-binary, and gender-creative (trans) youth and makes recommendations for practice. Interviews were conducted with 26 educators (preschool to secondary) who have worked directly with trans students (any child whose behaviour does not match stereotypes for their sex category assigned at birth, or who identifies with a gender dif…
What’s involved in ‘the work’? Understanding administrators’ roles in bringing trans-affirming policies into practice
Researchers have concluded that policy implementation is a process of mutual adaptation between policies and implementers. Our study draws attention to that relationship, especially with respect to policies that challenge assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. We focus on how six administrators in one United States school district understood ‘the work’ of bringing the district’s Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconformin…
The “box”ing match
Using queer theories of sexuality and gender, this study centers on “coming out” stories of ten queer adults. Engaging Butler's heterosexual matrix (1990) as an analytic tool, stories are analyzed with respect to agency and positioning. Findings suggest that participants' positioning and agency were largely affected by gender identity and expression (i.e., inside or beyond the gender binary). Findings further suggest that the heterosexual matrix …
Navigating the relationship between policy and practice
In this article, I examine the relationship between large-scale social discourses and local, school discourses as it plays out in conversations about gender and sexuality with and among teachers, specifically in the context of the passage of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act in California. Grounded in feminist poststructural theories of discourse, I discuss qualitative data from a year-long study at one public mid…
Leaning In to Discomfort
Educational literacy scholars have demonstrated the rich possibilities of the English language arts, and of queer-inclusive and critical literacy practices in particular, to disrupt heteronormativity and affirm gender and sexual diversity (GSD). However, there are few empirical studies that report what’s involved in preparing literacy teachers to organize classrooms in which recommendations for inclusive practice can land safely. In this article,…
Complicating What We Know
This article examines the complex, deeply personal processes that elementary educators engage as they learn to become inclusive practitioners of gender and sexual diversity (GSD). We complicate literature that highlights structural barriers and negative influences such as lack of administrative support and homophobic attitudes as key factors that constrain educators' willingness and ability to enact inclusive praxis. We argue that preparing educa…
What’s involved in ‘the work’? Understanding administrators’ roles in bringing trans-affirming policies into practice
Researchers have concluded that policy implementation is a process of mutual adaptation between policies and implementers. Our study draws attention to that relationship, especially with respect to policies that challenge assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. We focus on how six administrators in one United States school district understood ‘the work’ of bringing the district’s Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconformin…
Navigating the relationship between policy and practice
In this article, I examine the relationship between large-scale social discourses and local, school discourses as it plays out in conversations about gender and sexuality with and among teachers, specifically in the context of the passage of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act in California. Grounded in feminist poststructural theories of discourse, I discuss qualitative data from a year-long study at one public mid…
A Pretty Queer Thing
Studying educators' processes of learning to queer their practice has prompted us to think differently about our own praxis as teacher educators. Thinking differently has meant bringing the assumptions of queer theory and pedagogy to bear on our understanding of what is involved for teachers as they engage with difficult knowledge surrounding gender and sexual diversity in schools. In other words, it has meant organizing our approach to professio…
The “box”ing match
Using queer theories of sexuality and gender, this study centers on “coming out” stories of ten queer adults. Engaging Butler's heterosexual matrix (1990) as an analytic tool, stories are analyzed with respect to agency and positioning. Findings suggest that participants' positioning and agency were largely affected by gender identity and expression (i.e., inside or beyond the gender binary). Findings further suggest that the heterosexual matrix …
Leaning In to Discomfort
Educational literacy scholars have demonstrated the rich possibilities of the English language arts, and of queer-inclusive and critical literacy practices in particular, to disrupt heteronormativity and affirm gender and sexual diversity (GSD). However, there are few empirical studies that report what’s involved in preparing literacy teachers to organize classrooms in which recommendations for inclusive practice can land safely. In this article,…
The “box”ing match
Using queer theories of sexuality and gender, this study centers on “coming out” stories of ten queer adults. Engaging Butler's heterosexual matrix (1990) as an analytic tool, stories are analyzed with respect to agency and positioning. Findings suggest that participants' positioning and agency were largely affected by gender identity and expression (i.e., inside or beyond the gender binary). Findings further suggest that the heterosexual matrix …
Navigating the relationship between policy and practice
In this article, I examine the relationship between large-scale social discourses and local, school discourses as it plays out in conversations about gender and sexuality with and among teachers, specifically in the context of the passage of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act in California. Grounded in feminist poststructural theories of discourse, I discuss qualitative data from a year-long study at one public mid…
Teachers’ professional learning to affirm transgender, non-binary, and gender-creative youth
This paper critically examines the professional learning needs called for by educators working to support transgender, non-binary, and gender-creative (trans) youth and makes recommendations for practice. Interviews were conducted with 26 educators (preschool to secondary) who have worked directly with trans students (any child whose behaviour does not match stereotypes for their sex category assigned at birth, or who identifies with a gender dif…
What’s involved in ‘the work’? Understanding administrators’ roles in bringing trans-affirming policies into practice
Researchers have concluded that policy implementation is a process of mutual adaptation between policies and implementers. Our study draws attention to that relationship, especially with respect to policies that challenge assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. We focus on how six administrators in one United States school district understood ‘the work’ of bringing the district’s Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconformin…
Complicating What We Know
This article examines the complex, deeply personal processes that elementary educators engage as they learn to become inclusive practitioners of gender and sexual diversity (GSD). We complicate literature that highlights structural barriers and negative influences such as lack of administrative support and homophobic attitudes as key factors that constrain educators' willingness and ability to enact inclusive praxis. We argue that preparing educa…
Understanding democratic education policy queerly
The aim of this paper is to bring together concepts and commitments from both liberal and queer theories with the purpose of designing an integrated framework for equity-focused education policy analysis and implementation. In essence, we aim to build a conceptual bridge between queer and liberal democratic theories and to develop what we call a “queer democratic framework” for policy analysis and implementation. We use the case of the Fair Accur…
Beyond Bathroom Bills and the Gender Identity Debate
Schools and districts across the country have been thrust into the political limelight as they grapple with sometimes competing policy messages about the education of transgender and gender expansive students. Drawing on 2 years of survey data from families of transgender and gender expansive youth in one mountain state, this article uses critical trans politics to examine the ways the current policy climate aligns with the supports schools provi…
A Reflection on Engaged Scholarship
While the policy distractions outlined in this collection manifest in myriad ways—and our authors examine them through a wide range of lenses and analytic tools—we were struck as an editorial team by the commonalities they share. What is clear throughout these articles is that scholars, most centrally, raise the ubiquitous power of policy distraction as it relates to ignoring systems and structures that serve to maintain normativity in many forms…
Perpetuating Inequalities
The 2021 Politics of Education Yearbook brings together scholars from diverse theoretical orientations—including policy studies, critical trans politics, and Critical Race Theory—to explore the politics of distraction within education policymaking. This introductory article previews the work included in the Yearbook and presents a grounding framework for policy distraction, which we define as a persistent focus on a narrowly defined set of policy…
Cultivating a Queer Mindset
Background/Context A significant body of research on gender and sexual diversity in education has called on teachers to “move beyond inclusion” of LGBTQ+ voices in curriculum by queering their practice and “disrupting cis-heteronormativity.” Few studies have focused on the ways that disrupting cis-heteronormativity is challenging work for teachers to engage. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this case study, we focus on patter…
A Pretty Queer Thing
Studying educators' processes of learning to queer their practice has prompted us to think differently about our own praxis as teacher educators. Thinking differently has meant bringing the assumptions of queer theory and pedagogy to bear on our understanding of what is involved for teachers as they engage with difficult knowledge surrounding gender and sexual diversity in schools. In other words, it has meant organizing our approach to professio…
The promise of inclusive curriculum policy
Despite the growing tide of discriminatory executive orders and educational policies in the US, Colorado is one of a handful of states to pass legislation mandating the inclusion of minoritized communities in public school curriculum. Curious about how Colorado educators are making sense of public discourse around HB19-1192, we draw from Tuck (2018) to explore the theories of change that guide educators’ implementation efforts. By analyzing surve…
Sociology (12 works) · Psychology (9 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (8 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Pedagogy (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Gender Roles and Identity Studies (6 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (5 works) · Public relations (5 works) · Law (4 works)