“I Know What’s Best for My Child”: A Qualitativeanalysis of Us Cisgender-Heterosexual Andlgbtq Parents’ Perspectives on Inclusiveeducation Policies

Author(s)

• Flora Blanchette-Oswald, University of South CarolinaFollow
• Izilda Pereira-Jorge
• Alexandra Garr-Schultz
• Kimberly E. Chaney

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Diversity education in the K-12 years is a contentious issue in the contemporary US context. Given evidence that parental identity influences beliefs about and support for diversity education, we qualitatively explored cisgender-heterosexual and LGBTQ+ parents’ (N = 609) beliefs about the appropriateness of inclusive educational policies in K-12 classrooms. We collected qualitative data on parental perceptions of inclusive signals in classrooms (e.g., displaying a rainbow flag) and on perceptions of inclusive curriculum (whether children should learn about diversity at school/from teachers or at home/from parents). Parents’ responses reflected variability in support for inclusive signals. Cisgender-heterosexual parents were more likely to endorse that cues should not be allowed and were less likely to indicate holistic support of cues compared to LGBTQ+ parents. For inclusive curriculum, cisgender-heterosexual parents were more likely than LGBTQ+ parents to endorse that diversity information should be discussed only at home with parents. We contextualize parents’ responses within contemporary political rhetoric (e.g., discussions of Parents’ Bills of Rights) and highlight implications for educators and policymakers.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.70012

Publication Info

Published in Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Volume 25, Issue 2, 2025, pages e70012-.

Rights

© 2025 The Author(s). Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

APA Citation

Oswald, F., Pereira‐Jorge, I., Garr‐Schultz, A., & Chaney, K. E. (2025). “I know what’s best for my child”: A qualitative analysis of US cisgender‐heterosexual and LGBTQ parents’ perspectives on inclusive education policies. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 25(2).https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.70012