Embracing Queer and Trans Frameworks in Qualitative Educational Research : Showing Our Work

Embracing Queer and Trans Frameworks in Educational Research reflects on a decade of conversations about research, thinking, and life, exploring how to navigate the ethical complexities of working with queer and trans youth as queer and trans scholars. The authors introduce the framework of “showing our work,” an intimate approach that revisits the often-invisible processes behind what becomes the ‘final’ product. This lens offers a fresh, rarely told account of how research is made, highlighting the messy, reflective, and transformative moments that shape scholarly inquiry.

By showing their work, the authors invite educational researchers to engage with these moments in their own practice—thinking alongside the discussions and decisions that shape methodological choices. They argue for the vital role of queer and trans methodologies in qualitative educational research, positioning them not just as subject-specific tools but as critical lines of analytical inquiry. Drawing from their own research with queer and trans youth, both within and beyond educational spaces, the authors revisit and reimagine pivotal moments that challenged, provoked, and ultimately shaped key elements of their published work. Through this process, they create a generative space for methodological reimagining, situating ethnographic work with queer and trans youth as fertile ground for new ways of knowing.

This book is essential reading for students across disciplines, as well as qualitative researchers engaged in youth studies, critical methodologies, sociology, and queer and trans studies.