Queering the English Language Arts (ELA) Writing Classroom

Queer(ing) writing theories and pedagogies serve as fertile ground for the practice and the teaching of writing. This review synthesizes foundational and recent literature on how queer theoretical frameworks and understandings may lead to deeper and transformative writing and writing instruction in secondary English language arts classrooms and, on some level, postsecondary writing/composition. There is little foundational research on queering the ELA writing classroom specifically. What has been taken up is how queer identity and orientations impact and may be impacted by literacy participation and practice. While research takes up queer orientations of literacy practice broadly, this review examines and designates, in some cases, how literacy scholarship that uses queer and queering frameworks might be understood in relation to writing and teaching writing in English language arts classrooms specifically. In addition, the review synthesizes research that considers queer orientations and understandings of writing instruction and practice that are relevant to secondary and early postsecondary contexts.