Homosexuality and Homophobia in School. An Explorative Survey on the Italian. Pre-Service and in-Service Teachers' Perceptions

In the school context, homophobic behaviors and attitudes are expressed more easily (Kosciw and Diaz, 2006), while the homosexuality is still a taboo and a controversial issue (Fiorucci, 2014). In the Italian schools, sexual identity and fighting homophobia are an "unjustified absence" (Batini, 2011; 2014). Scientific literature (Batini and Santoni, 2009; Lasser and Tharinger, 2003) shows that teachers’ preparation is completely inadequate (Batini, 2014) and that the most common attitude is still the heteronormativity: denial and de-legitimization of non-heterosexual behaviors. The paper presents a qualitative research conducted between 2013 and 2015 and aimed to explore and to describe Italian pre-service e in-service teachers’ perceptions about homosexuality and homophobia. The study shows that the issue of homosexuality and the contrast of homophobia in Italian schools is still absent: the most common attitude is that of the “don’t ask, don’t tell”. In addition, the teachers’ perceptions show to big knowledge gap and their total unpreparedness and inexperience about this theme.