This dissertation examines the lived experiences of Finnish LGBTQ+, or queer, teachers from the particular perspective of language use and interaction in different settings and contexts in the workplace. The presentation is based on a doctoral research project currently in its final stages, set out to produce findings through three interconnected studies that inquire different perspectives of discourses, language use and interactional choices of queer teachers in Finland. The study draws from individual and group interview data of non-heterosexual and nonbinary Finnish teachers. The guiding research question of this project is: How do queer teachers reported language use and interaction construct meanings and discourses to their lived experiences as professional teachers in heteronormative schools?

In the dissertation, heteronormativity is viewed through its manifestations in the institutional and localized social context of schools as a desexualized, normalized structure that results in bias against queer people and queer visibility (e.g., Brett 2024; Reimers 2020). This reality is set against the backdrop of Finland as one of the inclusive and progressive Northern European countries, where affirmative, progressive policies and practices are in place (e.g., NCC 2014), but where schools nevertheless often remain as homotolerant sites that are permeated by homo- and transphobic discourses (Lehtonen 2023; Odenbring 2023; Røthing 2008). Further, the role and the position of queer teachers is examined as a juxtaposition, where moral and normative assumptions and expectations regulating teachers that stem from the dominantly heteronormative society clash with queer visibility and authenticity (Llewellyn & Reynolds 2021; Ullman 2020). Language use and interaction of the teachers is viewed as a site of knowledge production, theoretically framed through discourse theoretical and the third-wave sociolinguistic framework (Fairclough 2010; Eckert 2012), particularly within the understanding that social reality, meanings, and discourses are produced, established, and mediated in discourse and through social interaction, and revealed through the variation of indexical meanings of language use in different interactional contexts. In this dissertation, I am examining in particular the heteronormative discourse influencing language and interaction of queer teachers, further proceeding to construct meaning and discourses based on the teachers’ reported language use.

In the presentation, I will be discussing the doctoral research project as a whole, with focus on presenting the overarching key findings of the three studies and an overview of the significance of this contribution to the educational research field of sexuality and gender in Europe and particularly in the Nordic countries.  

The foundational research perspective for the project is discourse analytical, employing a multi-layered perspective through critical (Fairclough 2010) and mediational or nexus analytical (Scollon & Scollon 2004) approaches. This project also utilizes the ethnomethodological membership categorization analysis (Schegloff 2007; Stokoe 2012) as part of the methodology. With these approaches, the project provides an analytical look into the discursive power of heteronormativity, the normative and moral categorization and the embedded, hidden discourses that operate and function within the discursive space of Finnish schools - constructed through queer teachers’ reported language use variation and interactive choices in the interviews. With this plurality of perspectives to the analysis of individual (n=8) and group interview (n=9, separated into 3 groups) data of queer teachers, who teach in Basic Education (primary school and secondary school) and in upper secondary schools, I have sought to provide such interpretation and analysis on language use and interaction that extends mere discourse analysis and offers a layered, multi-perspective collection of findings.

Overall, this dissertation provides a comprehensive, layered picture and a sociolinguistic snapshot of queer teacher reality and experiences in schools in Finland. This is the first study conducted to this extent in a European school context that maps queer teachers’ lived experiences, language use variation, and queer-relevant interactions and settings. The findings provided by the three studies indicate that queer teachers find their language use varying and changing in different contexts in their workplace, and that this variation is connected to heteronormativity in many ways. Findings of the first study (Niinisalo 2024) illustrate that queer teachers’ primary concerns in schools are related to their own safety as being visibly queer, and their professional teacher identity is constructed through navigating feelings of incompatibility and inadequacy. However, these findings also display that queer teachers have potential and capacity to resist and disrupt cisheteronormative structures. The second study (Niinisalo, upcoming) explores nonbinary teachers’ use of membership categories in their talk as a way to construct visibility as both nonbinary people and as teachers, displaying that nonbinary visibility is constrained by limitations imposed by the binary gender system in everyday language used in schools, and is further complicated with the moral and normative expectations and assumptions associated with teachers. In the third study (Niinisalo 2025), daily interactive situations between students and queer teachers are examined as points of entry for queer-relevant, queer pedagogical learning and teaching. These findings illustrate particular social interactions where various discourses, factors, and social practices intersect and allow for transformative learning and teaching, displaying the complexity of navigating queer themes and subjects. They also display that queer teachers draw from their own queerness as a resource to navigate these interactions.Together, these findings reveal heteronormative structures and practices that are hidden underneath the surface of inclusivity in Finnish schools.

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