Abstract

This conference presentation explores the ways in which queer early-career educators navigate contemporary educational institutions, where professional identity is shaped through ongoing negotiations of visibility, legitimacy, belonging, and safety. Drawing on insights from the author's previous narrative research with queer early-career teachers alongside current doctoral work and professional practice, the presentation examines how institutional discourses of professionalism and neutrality continue to regulate which identities are recognised as professionally legitimate.

The presentation is framed through concepts of professionalism, performativity, institutional spaces, and professional becoming to argue that queer identities are not simply expressed within educational settings but are continually negotiated in response to institutional expectations and power relations. Three interconnected negotiations are explored: visibility and safety, professionalism and authenticity, and isolation and community. These highlight the emotional labour involved in managing professional identity while demonstrating the transformative role of LGBTQ+ networks and counterspaces in fostering belonging, resilience, and more sustainable professional identities.

The presentation concludes by arguing that inclusion should not be understood solely in terms of representation or visibility, but through critical examination of the institutional conditions that shape which professional identities become possible, recognisable, and sustainable. It invites educators and researchers to reconsider how educational institutions can move beyond symbolic inclusion towards environments that enable genuine professional authenticity and belonging for queer educators.