Querying Queer Quantitative Educational Research: A Systematic Literature Review

The past decade has seen growth in the use of quantitative methods for queer educational research. The purpose of the present study was to review research published in education journals from 2011 to 2022 that used quantitative methods and took up the language of queerness. We ultimately identified 55 such articles and analyzed them for their theoretical engagements, the inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities/people, the place of race and racism in the studies, and the analytic approaches authors took. We found that few engaged theory and there was little meaningful engagement of queer theoretical perspectives, though some authors had intentionally engaged queer theory. We also found that queer was usually a euphemism for gay, lesbian, and (more rarely) bisexual. Most focused on white participants, and when race was considered, it was almost always in comparison to white participants. We also found some examples of race-conscious work. Finally, most authors used t-tests, ANOVAs, and regression analyses.