While it may be common knowledge that language shapes how we think about gender and sexual identity there is no standard educational practice to create awareness about the place of sexual and gender diversity in the context of language learning. The purpose of this site is to serve as a space for educators to draw on queer pedagogy and queer theory to devise collectively teaching practices that acknowledge queer visibility in the classroom.
This site examines strategies to enhance inclusion, recognition and visibility of sexual and transgender minorities in the classroom. We believe that language instruction is in need of a queer pedagogy that challenges both the heteronormative assumptions of most language textbooks, and classroom practices that erase Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA) visibility. We believe that language instructors need to be inventive and critical, willing to address in class what most language manuals omit. This way, we hope to contribute to the development of tools and strategies that guarantee a safe, affirmative space for sexual and transgender minorities in our classrooms.
As a language teacher who has instructed students at all levels from middle school to college, I have faced various situations in which students and faculty had to deal with questions concerning gender identity and expression. In a 2016 article, I mention and elaborate on my experience with a language coordinator who questioned a male student who self-consciously referred in a class room activity to his ‘husband’ (in Spanish, marido or esposo) and not to his ‘wife’ (esposa). On another occasion, a non-binary student in class asked me what pronouns they could use when referring to themselves in Portuguese. More recently, at a presentation at Columbia University addressing questions of identity in the classroom, university faculties from different areas shared experiences and presented examples of how such issues have been expressed by students.
These examples suggest the importance of addressing sexual orientation, gender identity and expression in our daily pedagogical practices. This site intends to think about how queer pedagogy could be used to create more inclusive pedagogical practices that can prevent situations of exclusion, indifference, or intolerance in academic settings. This site seeks to affirm the importance of making visible the sociocultural and linguistic presence of LGBTQIA students in different academic settings. In doing so, this site analyzes not only aspects of representation in textbooks, but also of LGBTQIA visibility in the U.S. academic environment more generally.
[adapted from Neto (2018)]