Team Members

The project is led by Richard Harris and Maria Kambouri. Harris has previously conducted research with secondary-aged LGBTQ+ students and is aware of the significant challenges they encounter inside and outside of school, many of which started in primary school (Harris et al., 2021a, 2021b). Kambouri has conducted research involving the use of parents and teachers as research partners, to identify key characteristics of a successful partnership approach (Kambouri et al., 2021). This project utilised Harris’ knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues and Kambouri’s expertise in teacher-parent partnerships.

The project was initially carried out in a single local primary school to see how well the approach adopted would work. It has subsequently been extended to work with three other local primary schools, and the team are keen to engage with more schools.

To assist with the project, we have been fortunate to have a number of undergraduate students who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, who have been willing to share their experience of primary school with parents and teachers involved in the project. We would like to thank Grace, Harvey, Irene, Laura and Nadia. We have also been supported by two research assistants, Stuart Bracewell and Meggie Copsey-Blake. We are also very grateful to staff and parents at the primary schools who have been working with us.