This post-qualitative queer study explores how queer novice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Chile navigate heteronormative school environments during their critical novice years of teaching. Drawing on Foucault's theories of subjectivation and panoptic surveillance (Foucault, 1982, 1983, 2008), Butler's conceptualization of gender performativity (Butler, 1988, 1993, 1997), and Ahmed's queer phenomenology (Ahmed, 2006), this research examines how institutional power shapes educators whose bodies and subjectivities are perpetually "out of line" within educational spaces designed for straight paths. 

The study addresses a significant gap in current educational research: while policy initiatives provide novice teacher support (CPEIP, 2024; Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Familia, 2016), they fail to account for the intersecting identities that fundamentally shape professional experiences. For queer EFL educators specifically, this oversight is compounded by dual pressures: local school heteronormativity and global English language teaching discourses that carry implicit Western, cisgender, heterosexual assumptions (Holliday, 2008; Melo Panigatti, 2025). Despite incremental progress in LGBTQIA+ rights in Chile (Movilh, 2024), educational institutions remain largely silent on issues concerning queer professionals, particularly educators. State-led induction programs define novice teachers solely by years of service, ignoring intersecting identities like gender and sexual orientation that significantly shape professional and personal experiences (Rojas et al., 2019; Astudillo Lizama, 2023). 

The research question guiding this study is: How do queer novice EFL teachers (re)signify the processes through which their gendered subjectivities are produced in Chilean schools? The general objective is to explore the (re)signification of how queer novice EFL teachers' gendered subjectivities are produced in Chilean schools, with particular attention to the ways institutional discourses and everyday interactions shape their sense of belonging and professional adaptation during their first years of teaching. Three specific objectives guide this inquiry: (1) examining the challenges, strategies, and forms of resistance queer novice EFL teachers employ to navigate heteronormative or cis-normative school environments; (2) analyzing how queer novice EFL teachers resignify their experiences in relation to their emerging teacher identity as self-constituted practices of resistance; and (3) reviewing existing literature to understand how institutional conditions constrain and/or enable queer novice EFL teachers' negotiation of subjectivity and belonging. 

This research employs queer phenomenology (Ahmed, 2006; Vitry, 2021) as its methodological framework, utilizing two sequential data production methods with 5-7 Chilean queer EFL novice teachers. The first data production method consists of individual walking interviews (Kusenbach, 2003; Bartlett et al., 2023) along participant-selected routes, where prompts adapted from the Canadian project Queering the Map (LaRochelle, 2017) elicit reflections on embodied navigation of heteronormative spaces, bodily regulation, and identity negotiation. The second method involves two collective pottery sessions (Ong et al., 2020; Malafouris, 2023) following guided art-making through conversational prompts about teacher subjectivity formation, and intuiting visual display through re-oriented reflection on their ceramic pieces. 

This study anticipates documenting embodied strategies queer novice EFL teachers employ to survive heteronormative institutional spaces. Analysis is expected to reveal how panoptic surveillance operates through regulatory agents (Foucault, 2008; Troman, 2000), compelling educators to preemptively adjust gestures, speech patterns, and appearance (Ball, 2003; Robertson, 2022). The research is expected to expose gaps in Chile's formal school induction programs (Ayala et al., 2015; Flores, 2019), demonstrating how generic support structures function as mechanisms of exclusion for teachers whose identities disrupt heteronormative assumptions (Davis, 2020; Ferfolja, 2014; Toledo & Maher, 2019). By centering the resignification of queer novice EFL teachers' experiences, this study contributes to expanding the scope of ELT and teacher education research, foregrounds often-silenced voices (Ferfolja & Ullman, 2017), and challenges the hetero- and cis-normative assumptions that continue to structure school cultures and teacher education programs. 

This study adopts a post-qualitative exploratory research approach framed in queer theory (de Lauretis, 1991) and grounded in queer phenomenology to explore the unique experiences of queer novice EFL educators as they transition into professional teaching roles. The methodological framework recognizes the complexities of identity, perception, and embodiment as these educators navigate heteronormative school environments (Lane, 2020). Five to seven Chilean queer EFL novice teachers in their first three years of teaching (Ayala et al., 2015; Flores, 2019; Mansfield & Gu, 2019; Maready et al., 2021) will be recruited through social media and LGBTQIA+ organizations across the Santiago and Valparaíso regions. The study deliberately includes both employed and unemployed educators to capture the full spectrum of experiences, as well as those who are closeted or openly queer, recognizing that these differences represent distinct phenomenological relationships to educational spaces rather than variations on a shared theme. Data production occurs through two sequential phases during the first semester of 2026. Phase 1 consists of individual walking interviews (~90 minutes each) utilizing participant-selected routes structured around four spatial moments—such as approaching school buildings, passing churches, or traversing parks. Prompts adapted from the global project Queering the Map elicit reflections on embodied navigation of heteronormative spaces, bodily regulation, and identity negotiation. These interviews are audio-recorded and accompanied by detailed field notes documenting bodily practices, environmental contexts, and paralinguistic elements. Participants may also take photographs to capture spatial elements that resonate with their experiences analyzed with Keegan & Schmidt (2018) following Rose's (2016) compositional interpretation framework. Phase 2 involves two collective pottery sessions at a pottery studio. The first session (2.5 hours) follows Betensky's phenomenological model: pre-art material play, guided art-making through conversational prompts about teacher subjectivity formation, and intuiting visual display through re-oriented reflection on ceramic pieces. The second session (3+ hours) incorporates a traditional pre-Columbian firing process, during which participants create a collective piece while their individual works undergo transformation in the kiln (Bar-On, 2007). Data analysis follows a post-qualitative approach (Koro-Ljungberg, 2016; St. Pierre, 2021) embracing uncertainty through iterative thematic analysis, documented via reflexive journaling that tracks how the researcher's own queer positionality shapes interpretation (Behar, 1997). Trustworthiness is established through crystallization rather than traditional triangulation, member checking, and transparent documentation of the analytical journey. Robust ethical safeguards include comprehensive informed consent procedures, confidentiality protection through pseudonymization and password-protected storage, and distress management protocols with referral pathways to LGBTQ+-specialized mental health services.

This research makes significant contributions to educational equity by illuminating how current teacher induction systems systematically fail queer educators. The findings reveal that institutional induction processes function not as neutral professional socialization but as disciplinary mechanisms that produce particular kinds of teaching subjects aligned with heteronormative expectations. For queer novice teachers, this subjectivation process becomes doubly constraining as they navigate both general pressures of becoming "proper teachers" while simultaneously managing surveillance of their gendered and sexual embodiment (Butler, 1993, 1997; Ahmed, 2006).. For queer novice EFL teachers themselves, this research validates lived experiences and potentially informs peer networks that acknowledge their specific needs. For teacher education programs and school communities, understanding these dynamics is essential for designing truly inclusive induction frameworks that move beyond generic approaches to recognize how sexual orientation and gender identity shape novice teachers' transitions (Kearney, 2023; Pennell, 2023). For educational policymakers, this knowledge illuminates why current retention initiatives fail certain populations, particularly relevant given the alarming attrition rate among unsupported novice teachers. This research contributes to international scholarship by challenging the field's persistent heteronormativity (Merse, 2017; Riquelme-Sanderson, 2025) and providing methodological models for centering queer educators' voices in contexts where they have been systematically erased (Ferfolja & Ullman, 2017). The innovative data production methods demonstrate how embodied, material, and spatial methodologies can access knowledge that exceeds traditional verbal articulation. Ultimately, the results of this research address a social justice matter: without this knowledge, educational systems may continue to reproduce exclusionary practices that harm queer educators and deprive students of diverse role models and inclusive pedagogical approaches (Halberstam, 2011; Shabel, 2023). The outcomes position induction as a site where power operates to determine whose teaching lives are deemed worthy of institutional investment, making visible the urgent need for intersectional policy reforms.

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