Queer Bodies in Catholic Schools: Experiences of LGBTQ+ Individuals Who Attended Catholic Schools in Alberta
Bibliographic record
Abstract
LGBTQ+ students face specific challenges in Catholic school settings. Research to date has suggested, for example, that homophobic discrimination is embedded in these schools’ policies and curriculums. With a view toward augmenting the existing literature, I explored the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who attended Catholic schools in the province of Alberta. I was interested in queer students’ school experiences in general but also specifically in relation to sex and physical education classes and curriculum. My study was informed by social determinants of health and of sexual health theories. Ten people participated in semi-structured interviews, which lasted on average 90 minutes, and were audio recorded. Narrative analysis of the interview transcripts led to the creation of five primary themes: (1) heteronormativity, (2) Catholic teachings, (3) locker rooms, (4) community during and post Catholic school, and (5) short and long-term health impacts. A summary of these themes was sent to participants for optional review and comment, with two of the 10 participants responding that they agreed with the themes based on their experiences. Like existing research, I found that heteronormativity and homophobia operate on cultural, institutional, and curricular levels in Catholic schools making schools a difficult and sometimes unsafe space for LGBTQ+ students. My study also contributes to knowledge about the negative impacts on queer students’ short- and long-term (sexual) health. I identify several areas where school experiences could be improved for LGBTQ+ students including: (1) inclusive policies, (2) curriculum reform, (3) anti-homophobia initiatives, (4) GSAs, and (5) partnerships with external organizations.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.026 | 0.010 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".