Create a more gender-inclusive climate in your classroom and school. This important book breaks down issues of gender and sexuality at the individual, interactional, and institutional level and shows how you can cultivate an atmosphere of acceptance and belonging for all students. You’ll learn key concepts and terms educators need to know to support students, how gender and sexuality identities develop and influence mental health, why we should take an intersectional approach with students, and the importance of creating psychological safety in the classroom. You’ll also gain practical suggestions on how to disrupt unconscious bias, represent diverse voices, counteract microaggressions, use gender-neutral language and preferred pronouns, address gender bullying, provide safe zones, and craft inclusive school statements. Each chapter contains examples, anecdotes from teachers and students, best practices, and resources to help you along the way. Appropriate for educators of all grade levels, this book’s clear, helpful advice will help you ensure that your students feel visible, affirmed, and safe, so they can thrive in school and beyond.

This book is an ethnography of teachers and children in grades 1 and 2, and presents arguments about why we should take gender and childhood sexuality seriously in the early years of South African primary schooling. Taking issue with dominant discourses which assumes children’s lack of agency, the book questions the epistemological foundations of childhood discourses that produce innocence. It examines the paradox between teachers’ dominant narratives of childhood innocence and children’s own conceptualisation of gender and sexuality inside the classroom, with peers, in heterosexual games, in the playground and through boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. It examines the nuances and finely situated experiences which draw attention to hegemonic masculinity and femininity where boys and girls challenge and contest relations of power. The book focuses on the early makings of gender and sexual harassment and shows how violent gender relations are manifest even amongst very young boys and girls. Attention is given to the interconnections with race, class, structural inequalities, as well as the actions of boys and girls as navigate gender and sexuality at school. The book argues that the early years of primary schooling are a key site for the production and reproduction of gender and sexuality. Gender reform strategies are vital in this sector of schooling.

Activities for Teaching Gender and Sexuality in the University Classroom is the first interdisciplinary collection of activities devoted entirely to teaching about gender and sexuality. It offers both new and seasoned instructors a range of exciting exercises that can be immediately adapted for their own classes, at various levels, and across a range of disciplines. Activities are self-contained, classroom-tested, and edited for ease of use and potential to remain current. Each activity is thoroughly described with a comprehensive rationale that allows even those unfamiliar with the material/concepts to quickly understand and access the material, learning objectives, required time and materials, directions for facilitation, debriefing questions, cautionary advice, and other applications. For the reader’s benefit, each activity is briefly summarized in the table of contents and organized according to themes common to most social science classrooms: Work, Media, Sexuality, Body, etc. Many activities also include handouts that can be photocopied and used immediately in the classroom. Activities for Teaching Gender and Sexuality in the University Classroom will be the standard desk-reference on this topic for years to come, and will be indispensable to those who regularly teach on these topics.

In a set of compelling letters to teachers, Tara Goldstein addresses a full range of issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students and families at elementary and secondary school. Goldstein talks to teachers about how they can support LGBTQ students and families by normalizing LGBTQ lives in the curriculum, challenging homophobic and transphobic ideas, and building an inclusive school culture that both expects and welcomes LGBTQ students and their families. Moving and energizing, Teaching Gender and Sexuality at School provides readers with the knowledge and resources they need to create safer and more positive classrooms and discusses what it takes to build authentic, trusting relationships with LGBTQ students and families.Includes "The Unicorn Glossary" by benjamin lee hicks, the performed ethnography Snakes and Ladders by Tara Goldstein, and the verbatim play Out at School by Tara Goldstein, Jenny Salisbury, and Pam Baer.

There has never been a more important time for students to understand sexism, gender, and sexuality--or to make schools nurturing places for all of us. The thought-provoking articles and curriculum in this life-changing book, will be invaluable to everyone who wants to address these issues in their classroom, school, home, and community.

Gender identity and sexuality play crucial roles in the educational experiences of students, parents, and teachers. Teacher education must more directly address the ways that schools reflect and reproduce oppressive gender norms, working to combat homophobia, transphobia, heteronormativity, and gendered expectations in schools. This volume examines teacher candidates’ experiences with gender and sexuality in the classroom, offering insight and strategies to better prepare teachers and teacher educators to support LGBTQ youth and families. This volume addresses the need for broader, more in-depth qualitative data describing teacher candidates’ responses to diversity in the classroom (including gender, sexuality, race, class and religion). By using pedagogical tools such as narrative writing and positioning theory, teacher candidates explore these issues to better understand their own students’ narratives in deeply embodied ways. This book calls for schools to be places where oppression, in all its complexity, is explored and challenged rather than replicated.

Issues related to gender and sexual diversity in schools can generate a lot of controversy, with many educators and youth advocates under-prepared to address these topics in their school communities. This text offers an easy-to-read introduction to the subject, providing readers with definitions and research evidence, as well as the historical context for understanding the roots of bias in schools related to sex, gender, and sexuality. Additionally, the book offers tangible resources and advice on how to create more equitable learning environments. Topics such as working with same-sex parented families in elementary schools; integrating gender and sexual diversity topics into the curriculum; addressing homophobic bullying and sexual harassment; advising gay-straight alliances; and supporting a transgender or gender non-conforming student are addressed. The suggestions offered by this book are based on recent research evidence and legal decisions to help educators handle the various situations professionally and from an ethical and legally defensible perspective.

How much thinking have you done about gender? What does it feel like to be gay, trans or non-binary at school? How unbiased, safe and inclusive are our teachers, our schools and our systems, and what can we do about it? The time is ripe for a re-think, and the issues are pressing. Our pupils are grappling with challenges around gender and sexuality, and they need our well-informed support. Providing evidence, prompts and the space to explore the implications, restrictions and constructs of gender, this book is here to help every teacher reflect on issues around gender roles and expectations in their class. In this challenging and potent book, experts, academics and campaigners join forces to contribute important perspectives to complement Rycroft-Smith’s own accessible and often provocative explanations of many facets of gender and sexuality, including media, literature, toys, clothing, sexism, expectations, sexuality, gender roles, harassment and consent. Humour and anecdotes are thoughtfully intertwined with fascinating insights into biological and cultural perspectives and societal norms, highlighting why it’s so vital to teach pupils about gender issues, as well as modelling consent, good quality relationships and tolerance to children at all ages and stages of their school career. Providing clear, practical policy recommendations in an accessible and engaging way, The Equal Classroom is an essential read for any teacher or education professional who wants to ensure their school is a place where all pupils feel truly welcome and able to flourish, comfortable and safe in their emerging identities.

From concerns over the bullying of LGBTQ youth and battles over sex education to the regulation of sexual activity and the affirmation of queer youth identity, sexuality saturates the school day. Rather than understand these conflicts as an interruption to the work of education, Jen Gilbert explores how sexuality comes to bear on and to enliven teaching and learning. Gilbert investigates the breakdowns, clashes, and controversies that flare up when sexuality enters spaces of schooling. Education must contain the volatility of sexuality, Gilbert argues, and yet, when education seeks to limit the reach of sexuality, it risks shutting learning down. Gilbert penetrates this paradox by turning to fiction, film, legal case studies, and personal experiences. What, she asks, can we learn about school from a study of sexuality? By examining the strange workings of sexuality in schools, Gilbert draws attention to the explosive but also compelling force of erotic life in teaching and learning. Ultimately, this book illustrates how the most intimate of our experiences can come to shape how we see and act in the world.

Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation provides an outstanding and insightful critique of the ways that contemporary education is impacted by a range of political, social and cultural influences that inform the approaches that schools take in relation to gender and sexuality diversity. By applying feminist poststructural and Foucauldian frameworks, the book examines the ongoing impact of broader socio-cultural discourse on the lives of gender and sexuality diverse students and teachers. Beginning with an overview of the impact of how a culture of limitation is realised in Australia, the focus moves beyond this context to examine state and federal policies from comparable societies in countries including the USA and the UK and their effect on the production of knowledges and what's permissible to include in educational curriculum. This research-driven book thus provides a comparative, international overview of the current state of gender and sexuality diversity in schools, and convincingly demonstrates that despite some empowerment of gender and sexuality diverse individuals, silencing and marginalization remain powerful forces. This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, academics, professionals, and policy makers interested in the field of gender and sexuality in education. It is essential reading for those involved in pre-service and in-service teacher education, diversity education, the sociology of education, as well as education more generally.