“Outing” Social Justice: Transforming Civic Education Within the Challenges of Heteronormativity, Heterosexism, and Homophobia

Abstract

Abstract Civic education and its call for social studies to prepare students for citizenship in a participatory democracy have been limited to the political domain and touted as participation with the already existing political domain. This paper is a reflection of how engaging with and challenging heterosexism, homophobia, and heteronormativity in a Diversity in Social Studies Course taught in a large university in New York City can create a “disruptive voice” to challenge the hegemonic discourse of democratic citizenship. This type of challenge provides the space for preservice and in-service teachers to reconceptualize participation in democratic citizenship as social justice to fight for human rights and equality by changing the existing political domain rather than just participating within it.