Transvestite teachers: trajectories and experiences

Abstract

Brazilian schools are constituted in the dynamics of class diversity and sexual orientation, among many other factors. However, prejudice is clearly perceptible in the establishment of a relationship between professional competence and sexual orientation, which hinders those who are seen to be at the margin of heteronormativity from teaching. Thus, we ask: What does being a transvestite teacher mean? How to deal with prejudice related to sexual orientation? Our objective is to understand how two transvestite teachers of age 36 experience their career and teaching practices, i.e., the meanings they attribute to their experience. Therefore, we have elected the phenomenological perspective to analyze their life stories in the interface with gender issues. Their statements reveal the challenges of being accepted by the school community, the establishment of a locus of reference in the school and the decline of distrust regarding their professional efficiency.