Towards a Queer and Trans Ethic of Care in Education

Synthesizing conversations from across gender and sexuality education, race and settler-colonialism studies, and care work literature, Towards a Queer and Trans Ethic of Care in Education explores how queer and trans teachers of colour understand and practice care. Woven between narratives and scholarly literature, Owis theorizes a unique and radical new way of conceptualizing and practicing care in K-12 educational settings, proposing a "queer and trans ethic of care." This new ethic of care is argued for as both a theory and practice. It aims to challenge the embeddedness of white supremacy and settler-colonialism in K-12 classrooms, while offering a framework that can be applied in personal relationships, teaching and research in communities and higher education. Drawing on a study of participants in the Ontario educational system, Owis examines why care is critical in the community and in practice as an education. They then ask how a queer ethic of care can help us understand what it means to heal, thrive beyond survival, and provide care outside of the matrix of white supremacy and settler-colonialism. These considerations are crucially linked to critical points of intervention in academia, schooling environments and policy at the provincial, federal and global level, demonstrating the need for a radical, systemic overhaul to the way educational institutions practice and understand care. Challenging, educating and offering new ways of thinking about care for and with QTBIPOC communities, it will appeal to scholars and researchers of gender and sexuality studies, race and ethnicity in education, sociology, social work, and diversity and equity in education.