Gender and Sexuality in Croatian Educational Institutions: Possibilities for Using Queer Theories and Critical Ethnography in Sociology

Abstract

Gender and sexuality in the Croatian educational context occasionally resurface in the public discourse due to political instrumentalization but are largely neglected as a research topic. To address this absence, this paper presents original data on high-school and university experiences of queer persons collected in critically oriented research which examines social inequality of queer individuals in the Croatian educational institutions. Based on these data and drawing parallels with previous studies in an international context, the authors outline a theoretical approach that conceptualises gender and sexuality as interdependent social processes. Through showing how educational institutions actively marginalise persons of non-normative gender and sexual orientation, the authors point to the importance of conceptualising the everyday life of queer persons in education as a source of knowledge about these processes by highlighting the complex relationship between gender and sexuality – which authors do by establishing theoretical and methodological collaborations between sociology, queer theories as well as critical and institutional ethnography. The study's findings suggest that educational institutions have a mediating role in creating inequality based on gender and sexual differences since they function as spaces privileging heterosexuality and heteronormativity. This results in an ambivalent status of queer gender expressions and sexualities as they are simultaneously a subject of public negotiation and stigmatization and hidden in the private sphere of each person. (In)visibility and (non)acceptance of non-normative gender expressions and sexualities in the Croatian educational context imply a continuous process of managing one’s identity between institutional and personal spheres of action.

Keywords

• gender
• sexuality
• queer
• LGBTQ
• education