Although research on the experience of queer youth has been conducted in multiple social contexts, we have little comparative research in this field. This paper focuses on queer youth in Iceland and South Africa (SA) and questions whether their schooling experiences are more than violence, bullying and harassment? At a first glance, using research from Iceland and South Africa may seem perplexing and the reader might ask – Is there anything to compare? This is a fair question given that both countries demonstrate immensely different social, economic and educational conditions. However, despite the noticeable social and economic differences between the countries, South Africa and Iceland do share some similarities. Since the 1990s, both countries have been seen as progressive and leading the way on various issues concerning LGBTQ rights and the inclusion of its LGBTQs. For example, the South African constitution includes sexual diversity and forbids any discrimination on the basis of gender and sexuality. Similar laws have been passed within the Nordic context although they are not in all cases included in the constitution. Due to this, Iceland and South Africa share a global comparison in that both countries are depicted as beacons of LGBTQ rights. However, some caution is advised in the tendency to cast these cultural contexts in idealized and romanticized terms and describing them as a paradise for sexual minorities. There is still a gap between a progressive society in terms of sexual rights and gender equality, on the one hand, and more conservative schools, on the other hand, particularly in terms of the implementation of LGBTQ policies in the classroom and educational context (Author 1, 2017a; Author 1 , 2017b; Author 2, 2017; Author 2, 2013; Author 2, 2017). Thus, institutionalized heterosexism and heteronormativity are still (re)produced and sustained within these educational contexts, despite progressive policies in terms of gender and sexual equality, and a strong legal and human rights history.

In light of this contradiction, in which on the one hand the dominant discourse depicts Iceland and SA as progressive societies in terms of gender and sexual rights, the aim of this paper explores the schooling experiences of queer youth in both contexts. Rather than simplistically compare queer youth in both countries, this paper seeks to understand whether placing the two contexts side by side can advance new knowledge on heterosexism, schooling and social change, without rendering queer youth only as victims of sexual / gender oppression, but also as agentic subjects, who use their queerness as a strategy to claim a space within schools and educational institutions. In that sense the paper will generate further knowledge on these issues both within the European context but also globally, contributing to the discussion on queer victimization and agency, drawing on examples from South Africa and Iceland. There is much to learn from bringing together the scholarship and narratives of queer youth, from both the Global North and South and the need to think transnationally about gender and sexuality. As Connell (2007; 2014) puts it, Northern and Southern perspectives can and do influence each another. Juxtaposing North-South research and data not only contributes to our understanding of queer youth in school contexts globally but also to the development of theory and practice.

We base our theoretical work on queer theory but also draw into our analysis Bourdiean perspective on cultural capital and distinction (see Bourdieu, 1984, 1986). Regarding our data, the we draw on interviews with 19 LGBTQ students in South African and Icelandic high schools. Thematic analysis developed by Braun and Clarke (see Terry, Hayfield, Clarke, and Braun, 2015) was used. After an initial analysis conducted by the authors isolated, both authors discussed and considered how the findings could make dialogues with our theoretical frameworks.

Our findings point to is the troubling of Kumashiro´s (2000, 2001, 2002) knowledge for and about the other. Kumashiro instead of simply asking who marginalized focuses is on why individuals are oppressed and encourages understanding the dynamics of oppression and articulating ways to work against it. Our research shows how focusing solely on the negative experiences of the Other in schools, implies that the Other is the problem. Moving beyond approaches that address the invisibility, silence, stereotypes, victimization, violence and misinformation about and for queer youth, our research shows that queer youth employ various strategies to reposition themselves as agentic subjects. As our findings show these strategies entailed: i) Countering the legitimacy of heterosexuality through humour, parody, and active resistances; ii) using queerness to establish some kind of a distinction, drawing on their queer capital within the field of the school and interactions with peers; iii) and being able to escape the regulatory mechanisms of gender, finding it easy to relate to both genders. In other words, most of our participants tried to find some ways not to be constituted only as victims of heterosexist ideology and homophobia, although not minimizing its existence in schools, emphasizing instead their resistive activities, which in some ways can be defined as queer activism.

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