In our interview study, we had the opportunity to discuss Victoria Mason’s experience navigating the education system as a racialized, queer women within a predominately white school. She highlights the importance of educators to understand intersectionality as something to be taught and expected in the curriculum.
In this week’s blog, we want to highlight the importance of considering intersectionality in discussions of queer identities in schooling and education. Taking an intersectional approach to our teaching means making students aware of the multiple forms of oppression and privilege individuals face and how they interact with one another. In our interview study, we had the opportunity to discuss Victoria Mason’s experience navigating the education system as a racialized, queer women within a predominately white school. She highlights the importance of educators to understand intersectionality as something to be taught and expected in the curriculum.
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What happens when Black History Month is used as a token? When discussions of Black history and communities stop at the end of the month? When its powerful messages are not internalized? When it doesn’t include a reflection on how non-Black folks benefit from anti-black narratives? When it becomes a signifier of inclusivity instead of an appreciation and celebration of Black identities, histories and futurity? Beyond this month, what can educators do? These are questions that arise every February at the onset of Black History Month, and become even more layered when accounting for the multiple and simultaneous oppression experienced by LGBTQ black communities, families and youth. Here’s a list of advice from our families and our research team that might be helpful in navigating these discussions: Advice from our families:
Advice from the LGBTQ Families Speak Out research team:
artwork by joili on tumblr
This month, the LGBTQ Families Speak Out celebrates Black History Month. Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring stories from our families, resources for educators, and celebrating the contributions of Black LGBTQ communities.
This past month, the LGBTQ Families Speak Out team has celebrated LGBTQ curriculum and pedagogy by engaging in discussions on LGBTQ representation in curriculum along with providing resources for educators to use in their own classroom. As we come to the end of January, we wanted to highlight the voices and advice from LGBTQ families from our study on how educators can implement LGBTQ curriculum and pedagogy in the classroom. Our website features a range of videos sorted in themes including advice for teachers, which provides various clips from our interview study on how educators can better support LGBTQ students and families in the classroom. In the video highlighted here, Nicole and Mita discusses the importance of teachers breaking down their understanding of who LGBTQ peoples are and what they ought to be, to include an intersectional lens at the history and people who make up the community. For more interviews regarding advice for teachers, please refer to the following link: http://www.lgbtqfamiliesspeakout.ca/videos/category/advice To continue our discussion on LGBTQ+ representation in the curriculum, I wanted to highlight an inclusive curriculum for teachers and community educators to teach sexual health.
As educators, we play an important role in building the self-awareness and capacity among young people to address sexual health issues. The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research has created Educator Guides that cover a range of topics including: Identity & Self Awareness, Healthy Relationships & Consent, HIV/AIDS Basics, and HIV Risk & Prevention. Not only do these guides include grade-appropriate activities and relate to curricula across all Canadian provinces and territories, but they also provide diverse discussions within the sexual health curriculum. To get your FREE copy of these lessons plans, refer to the following link: https://canfar.com/awareness/for-educators/ In our last blog, we featured Yasmin Owis' research study on LGBTQ+ issues in sex education and how educators can strive to make a more inclusive sex education.
To continue the conversation, I wanted to highlight a resource for educators called "Queering Sex Ed (QSE)". QSE is a new project at Planned Parenthood Toronto that aims to develop a sex ed resource with and for LGBTQ youth. This resource provides educators and youth with information on language and definitions, identities, body positivity, consent, and more! For more information, check out the link below: http://teenhealthsource.com/blog/queering-sexual-education/ This month, the LGBTQ Families Speak Out team is featuring videos and research from our interview study on LGBTQ+ curriculum and pedagogy.
LGBTQ+ students need a learning environment where their unique experiences are reflected and where they can receive proper education to keep them safe and healthy. The erasure of the community is most clear in our sex education curriculum. Despite queer and trans people being re-included in the Health curriculum in Ontario, there is a lot more that our curriculum needs to strive for. Discussions of LGBTQ+ issues in sex education is the focus of Yasmin Owis’ most recent research paper, "Educate, Not Titillate". Yasmin is a PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) and a member of our LGBTQ Families Speak Out Project. In their research paper, Yasmin speaks to the importance of queering sex education by including discussions of intersectionality within the LGBTQ+ communities as well as opportunities for youth to co-create their learning experience in sex education. Yasmin is featured in our Gender. Sexuality. School podcast, where she talks about her research on ways to queer sex education to represent the lives of LGBTQ+ students. To learn more about queering sex education, refer to the following links: Podcast: http://www.lgbtqfamiliesspeakout.ca/podcast.html Research paper: https://mtrj.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/mtrj/article/view/32374/25762 Stay tuned for our next blog where we will be featuring resources for educators to queer their sex education programming! As educators, it is important to consider the extent to which LGBTQ-related content is present in their curriculum and the spaces to which they can be inserted. It is known that implementing LGBTQ content leads to improved academic success for LGBTQ students and provides an overall better learning environment for all students. However, in efforts of inclusion, educators should be wary that is does not become fragmented or isolating. This occurs when LGBT topics are solely introduced during LGBTQ History Month or Pride Month, with little to no context provided to the students or when representations of the community are being presented in a negative way. Further fragmentation can occur when only certain representations such as gays and lesbians are being presented when discussing the LGBTQ community. Such homogenization of the community is particularly damaging for people in the community who have been and continue to be marginalized within the LGBTQ community, including people of colour, transgender people, intersexed people, and people with disabilities. When engaging LGBTQ-related content, educators should ask themselves the following:
This month, the LGBTQ Families Speak Out team will be featuring videos from our interview study on LGBTQ curriculum and pedagogy. LGBTQ families deserve a learning environment that is inclusive and reflective of their diverse experiences. Research shows that LGBTQ students who attend schools with curriculum that is reflective of LGBTQ people, history, and events have improved academic success and provides an overall better school climate. Yet, the majority of LGBT students don’t feel like they receive this kind of education. In this month, we hope to engage in discussions on how educators can further provide an inclusive classroom for LGBTQ students and their families as well as engaging with the videos from this study on curriculum and pedagogy.
now & them is making its debut at the Assembly Theatre this weekend! Directed by our fellow cast member from Out at School Max Fearon, now & them is a play that features queer relationships in an era of climate apocalypse. For more information on the show and how to get your tickets, please refer to the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2455007011436676/ |
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