'I don’t think my sexuality would come into teaching at all': Exploring the borderland discourse of Australian LGBTQ+ pre-service teachers

Experiences of non-heterosexual teachers are relatively understood, but little work focuses explicitly on LGBTQ+, pre-service teachers and none in the Australian context. Alsup’s ([2006]. Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating personal and professional spaces. New York: Routledge.) borderland discourse is used to explore the role of gender and/or sexual identity in developing teacher identities of 12 Australian LGBTQ+ pre-service teachers. Findings show identity management and negotiation practices relating to decisions to hide or disclose identities in school contexts. Creating opportunities for borderland discourses, where tensions between the personal and professional can be deliberately brought to the fore, is presented as key to support the development of all new teachers.