Sexualities, Gender and Schooling: Approaches to Anti-Homophobia and Anti-Transphobia Education

By Tara Goldstein

For the last six weeks I've been teaching a summer course at OISE for Master and Doctorate students entitled Sexualities, Gender and Schooling:  Approaches to Anti-Homophobia and Anti-Transphobia Education.  

This course is designed for Masters of Education (MEd) and Master of Teaching (MT) students and focuses on matters of equity, inclusion, and school reform as these pertain to differences of sexual orientation and gender expression among students in elementary and secondary schools.

We have been focusing on understanding and addressing those educational and schooling issues confronting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) students.  We have also examined the ways issues of homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism intersect with other forms of oppression and discuss a range of teaching and research activist projects that attempt to respond to these issues.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Our work together has been centred on 

1. raising our own consciousness and understanding of the different ways – individual, institutional, and societal – that  homophobia, transphobia, heterosexism, genderism and heteronormativity can manifest itself in school settings; an
2. exploring ways of challenging oppression in our classrooms and schools through our everyday understandings and practices as teachers.  This work will include 

• learning about heterosexual and cisgender privilege; 
  
• making connections between homophobia, transphobia, heterosexism, genderism, heteronormativity and other forms of oppression
  
• gathering information that contradicts stereotypes about LGBTQ people, and
  
• identifying personal and institutional actions and strategies to address heterosexism, homophobia and transphobia.
  

COURSE OVERVIEW

Week 1 and 2:
Foundation building/Sexualities, Schooling and Anti-homophobia education
The language of sexuality and gender studies
Key policy documents for teachers and schools
Key conceptual frameworks for anti-homophobia, anti-genderism, and anti-transphobia education

Week 3 and 4: 
Gender, Schooling and Anti-Genderism and Anti-Transphobia Education

Week 5 and 6: 
LGBTQ Families in Schools

This is our last week of the course and based on the weekly take-aways we share at the end of every class we have all learned a great deal together.

For a list of the texts we used in the course please click on Resources.