Queering Our Schools

Talking Points

“How do we create classrooms and schools where each child, parent, and staff member’s unique, beautiful self is appreciated and nurtured?”

Something I’ve noticed in my classrooms is that my students seem to be fairly accepting of other classmates and students in the school who are LGBTQ+, but the same acceptance isn’t always afforded to teachers.  There is a long term sub in our school who is an openly trans woman and I’ve overheard some very disrespectful conversations regarding her that I’ve had to shut down.  I’ve not had to make similar corrections regarding trans and non-binary students.

“Despite the recent advances in LGBTQ rights, most schools aren’t safe for queer students.”

This is critical and follows the ideal of Maslow before Bloom, where students' needs need to be met before learning can be effectively implemented.  Safety is one of the lowest tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy, meaning it is one of the most important needs to be met.  If our LGBTQ+ students are not able to feel safe, they will not be able to effectively learn.  As we saw in the case studies from last session, trans students and staff were being made to feel less safe by their school administrators who attempted to put a spotlight on their personal gender identities when they wished to be who they were in their school communities.

“As the movement has developed past its early “gay liberation” beginnings, it has become more complex; teachers who felt comfortable talking about lesbians and gay men need to wrap their hearts and minds around transgender issues and challenges to the socially constructed gender binary.”

While it is true that there are more categories to be recognized in the LGBTQ+ community than just those identifying as gay, I don’t see how it greatly complicates the situation.  No one is asking the general population to know anyones preferred pronouns without prior information, we are just being asked to be considerate.  If you make a wrong assumption about someone, accept the correction and use the individual's preferred pronouns now that you have been made aware of it.  As Johnson noted in Privilege, Power, and Difference, and Armstrong and Wildman discussed in “Colorblindness is the New Racism,” ignoring the issue and taking offense when your own privilege is challenged does not lead to progress or equity, it reinforces the inequities that exist in society rather than extending privilege to all.

Argument Statement:

Despite progress, the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in society in general, and in the education system specifically, has a long way to go to provide safe places for all queer students.

The Silenced Dialogue

Talking Points: 

“I tell you, I’m tired of arguing with those white people, because they won't listen…”

“No, they listen, but they don’t hear…”

“The more I try to explain, they just look and nod, just keep looking and nodding.  They don’t really hear me.”

Three examples of minority individuals trying to explain their experience to white people and not being heard.  These are examples of what happens when people in positions of privilege are unwilling to recognize or acknowledge their own privilege.  They assume everyone has their same experiences and ignore the evidence to the contrary when it is made glaringly obvious by those with different lived experiences.  It would seem to be that there is a great lack of empathy, or perhaps an unwillingness to shed ignorance for the sake of enlightenment.  A poor characteristic for those who are supposedly professional educators.

“To provide schooling for everyone’s children that reflects liberal, middle-class values and aspirations is to ensure the maintenance of the status quo, to ensure that power, the culture of power, remains in the hands of those who already have it.”

This statement is very reminiscent of the observations Jean Anyon made of school education strategies in the different socio-economic neighborhoods described by Finn in Literacy with an Attitude.  Public education institutions seem more successful at reinforcing the existing socio-economic divisions in our society rather than providing equitable education and opportunities to all children.

 “If such explicitness is not provided to students, what it feels like to people who are old enough to judge is that there are secrets being kept, that time is being wasted, that the teacher is abdicating his or her duty to teach.”

I found this interesting in light of the teaching policies that the Providence District is pushing on teachers.  Their goals are to have teachers spend less time on direct instruction and focus more on student lead and generated learning.  I wonder now if the students' reluctance to participate in this form of education is originating not from apathy, but a cultural incongruence between students and school.

 

Argument Statement:

As long as the reins of education policy are held by the culture in power, there will continue to be a conflict between students of non-dominant cultures and the educational institutions that are supposed to serve their needs.