Wendy Cumming-Potvin

The Bloomsbury Handbook of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Educational Contexts brings together international contributions in scholarship and coverage, mapping the discipline through theoretical explorations, personal narratives and empirical studies. The handbook focuses on themes that examines Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer issues including: inclusion in action, engaging teaching spaces, social justice standpoints, student/teacher agency, preservice teacher education, criticality in educative spaces and children and agency. The book provides a crucial lens into educational contexts that fuel or hinder human flourishing, the power of learning spaces and institutional educative standpoints and teaching approaches. Cultural, social and economic injustices that perpetuate cycles of disadvantage and oppressive narratives are explored using different theoretical frameworks that underpin equitable and inclusive educative landscapes.

In a world that is predominately shaped by cis-/heteronormative binaries, LGBTQIA+ communities are under regular attack in life, studies, and at work. Given the importance of promoting and affirming diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the current educational landscape, there is a growing movement in queering research and curriculum. Rejecting the rigidity of cis-/heteronormative frameworks, these approaches allow for more inclusive and equitable practices in research and pedagogy.

Rainbow Futures in Research and Teaching showcases pioneering work from queer scholars and allies in Australia, offering a unique exploration of how queering methodologies can be applied across disciplines. Queering methodology and pedagogy challenges and breaks down strict, binary and hierarchical ideas about gender and sexuality. The authors of this edited collection address urgent issues such as the ongoing marginalisation of LGBTQIA+ communities in education and society, and highlight the role of queer-inclusive research and teaching in promoting DEI. Contributors span a range of fields and disciplines – from Social Sciences to the Humanities, to STEM and Indigenous Studies, as well as norm-defying and creative contributions. This holistic approach provides a multifaceted technique to disrupt cis-/heteronormativity in education and scholarly research.

For those committed to challenging the status quo, from researchers to educators and advocates, this edited collection helps advance inclusive and creative practices that resist normative approaches to research and writing. Providing concrete examples of queering methodologies and heartfelt lived experiences authors equip readers with the rainbow toolkit to foster real-world change in their given field

Foregrounded in the work of Elizabeth Povinelli and drawing on semiotic theory, translanguaging and play-based learning pedagogies, this article presents findings from a critical participatory action research project conducted in an early years classroom in a remote Aboriginal community school in Western Australia. It describes how two educators, from both non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal backgrounds, collaborated to create spaces for the children in their classroom to engage deeply with their land, language and culture through intentional, purposeful and planned play, specifically Playworld Translanguaging. Findings are presented as a narrative account of one child’s meaning-making practices in collaboration with their teachers and peers, focusing on how they co-created shared spaces for play, co-developed semiotic resources through their play and engaged in symbolic play through the transformation of the meaning of objects in the local environment. Following our analysis of the narrative account, we draw out and discuss the centrality of land to knowing, being and doing in Aboriginal contexts, and the connections to language and culture. We conclude by explaining how, through Playworld Translanguaging, educators can combat cultural, linguistic and geographical dispossession and reductive educative expectations caused by colonialism and enacted through education systems.

Human participant recruitment is often a critical part of the research process. However, this aspect of research method is often glossed over in the literature, despite being common to all research approaches involving human participants. In this study, which explored how preservice teachers view the importance of media literacy pedagogy in teaching, we surveyed and interviewed a cohort of Gen Z BEd students drawn from across three public universities in WA. Recruiting from this mythical cohort of digital natives proved onerous, and we report on the pragmatics of implementing the research design and its data collection phases. Traditional participant recruitment methods, which have been systematically employed for decades in some cases, are often unquestioned. Similarly, problem-solving skills are key to developing a researcher's sense of self-efficacy to overcome unforeseen challenges to research design plans.


We report that in the postdigital era, conventional participant recruitment methods appear to have become less effective for some cohorts of participants. Because participant recruitment often occurs in crucial early stages of a project, challenges can affect the doctoral candidate's self-efficacy and resilience. However, positivity is key, bootstraps are pulled, and agile recruitment solutions can be found.

For more than a decade, Australia has faced intense teacher shortages. To address this issue, the Australian Government has proposed a strategy of expanding the number of migrant teachers. In the light of growing xenophobia and anti-immigration discourses, this study seeks to understand how the international teacher recruitment is received in Australia. Of equal concern, little is known about the lived experiences of migrant teachers as they navigate an Australian education system characterised by multilayered bureaucracy, complex pedagogical demands, increasing student violence and abuse, and limited resources.

This presentation is based on a qualitative study that showcases the narratives of secondary school migrant teachers. Building on themes of identity, belonging, power, networking and resilience, emergent interview data from Western Australia will provide insight into the experiences of migrant teachers.