Social Norms In Schools

Social norms, although directly impacting the school experience of LGBT students, are perpetuated through the influence of three factors. First, social norms are perpetuated through the influence of students who unwillingly conform to expected behavior. Second, social norms predict expected behavior of a given community. Third, the behavior of individuals within a given community is viewed as ‘undesirable’ when it does not match the expected social norm. Each of the factors is no less important than the other; furthermore, the factors sometimes influence social norms in concert with one another. The left columnar representation displays the influence of each of the three factors perpetuating social norms upon the LGBT student school experience …show more content…
Statistics disclosing perceptions of student safety, acts of bullying and harassment, poorly designed and implemented policy at the state and local levels, and incidents of adults being unresponsive on behalf of sexual minority students are prevalent throughout the literature. Sears (1992) calls for an extension of resistance theory by future research to better understand the lives of LGBT students (p. 155). To positively impact the school experience of LGBT youth their plight must become a focus of researchers and evaluators alike. It has been made clear that despite the existence of protective policy at the state level, there are instances where the same policy protections are not clearly defined at the local level, if they exist at all. These instances clearly provide opportunities for research to ask the questions needed to address this misalignment. Local authorities ought to begin to acknowledge the alarming trends and begin to address the underlying causes that plague public schools surrounding sexual minority students. Clearly, perpetuating the status quo and to not act with immediacy is