Coming together and discussing collective action for LGBT+* Educators and for inclusive education was inspiring. I found the work around decolonising the curriculum*, the impact of colonisation on perceptions of gender and sexuality really interesting to learn more about and discuss. I welcomed the practical tips to take back around becoming a more inclusive school. I valued the awareness around intersectionality and the opportunity for the caucuses (groups) to meet, I attended the Black LGBT+ caucus and found it useful to have that space where members could share experiences. I also enjoyed the opportunity to spend time and connect with colleagues from across the country.
For me, what I realised is that it’s hard to do it alone. There are many ways in which, as an MFL teacher, I could make the curriculum I teach more inclusive of LGBT and other identities, and I think about and work on this regularly, however, due to the excessive teacher workload, I often don’t find or make the time to adapt the curriculum, even though I care about it deeply. As expressed at a different event I went to earlier in the year, the recurring theme came up, that it can’t be left the LGBT+ teacher in the school or the black teacher in the school (or the black LGBT+ teacher in the school) to try and change everything. We need policy, systems and structures in place to make delivering an inclusive curriculum (in every sense as there is no hierarchy in equality), compulsory and well supported. If we are to have impact, then I don’t want to be working on something that other teachers are working on independently. I want us to work together on it, and to build on existing knowledge, for example, resources that teachers have produced or want to produce. So, we need our networks to build strength, we need spaces to come together and share.
I was excited to see that on the evening after the conference another MFL teacher had already started a dialogue around LGBT+ inclusive MFL curriculum, as this gave and will give me opportunity to share ideas that I have been thinking about alone, and to learn from others so that we can provide our students with an inclusive education where they see themselves represented. We need the education system to acknowledge that inclusive education benefits us all, so that it falls on all staff and all establishments to do the work, not just the one teacher from one or multiple minority groups.
On my journey home I realised that a lot of work I have been doing over the past year around developing a more global curriculum, links with the concept of intersectional inclusive teaching and decolonising the curriculum already so I am excited to build on this and share with others. I am passionate about languages teaching, however, my greatest driver to teach is a desire for social justice. I feel content that this work that I have been a part of at the LGBT+ conference will support me to contribute to a more socially just world.
I am grateful to those who have worked at building the conference, from 45 members at the first LGBT+ conference in 2014, to now 2019, where there were 320 members present and even more who had wanted to attend.
I find it concerning that in 2019 many LGBT+ staff are still struggling with and debating whether to come out at work. Anecdotally it seemed to be more of a struggle for primary teachers and teachers in faith schools, although there were many secondary school teachers in the same boat. The opportunity for those struggling to discuss with those who are open about their sexuality with staff and students was rich and supportive.
Big thanks to Leeds District NEU for funding my place at the conference.
Top tips for becoming more (LGBT+) inclusive:
- School policies – check these are up do date and include provision for LGBT+ communities. This will protect students and staff if required. For example, does your school anti-bullying policy include policies against homophobia and transphobia? Do you have a gender-neutral toilet?
- Intersectionality*: Recognise and educate about the fact that LGBT identities and others are not distinct, and one person can be part of several groups who are oppressed, for example, black, gay and disabled. Include role models of different identities (gender, sexuality, race, disability, age etc.) in your subject area and representations in the curriculum you teach in order to reflect this.
- Staff training should be given and built on (not just a one-off session) around LGBT+ issues.
- Look wider than the personal. Sanctioning a child is for a homophobic act they personally commit is not going to effect the change that we need in society. We need also to consider the culture and society around the child that has led to them acting in this way and work at challenging that. This will be more likely to challenge their belief system rather than just stopping them from expressing their homophobic view.
- Avoid stereotyping based on what we see as images of LGBT+ people in the media and know that there will be black students who are LGBT+, Muslim students who are LGBT+, students with disabilities who are LGBT+ and so on. Therefore, when we offer space and support for LGBT+ students and staff, we need to make it relevant to all communities.
- Normalise/usualise* language around LGBT+ relationships and families. In the National LGBT Survey by the government 2019 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report), 39% of cisgender* respondents under 35 stated that they identified as bisexual, asexual, pansexual, queer or ‘other’. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge this, to share this, and to support staff and students to stop making assumptions that others are heteronormative. This may also support more colleagues to be open about their sexuality and gender identity at school, which would provide young LGBT+ people with some of the role models they need.
*Glossary
LGBT +
Is an “inclusive” way to represent all the different identities in the longer acronym but here’s a breakdown of what each of the letters in LGBTQQIAAP mean.
L – lesbian: a woman who is attracted to other women
G – gay: a man who is attracted to other men or broadly people who identify as homosexual
B – bisexual: a person who is attracted to both men and women
T – transgender: a person whose gender identity is different from the sex the doctor put down on their birth certificate
Q – queer: originally used as a hate term, some people want to reclaim the word, while others find it offensive. It can be a political statement, suggest that someone doesn’t want to identify with “binaries” (e.g. male v female, homosexual v straight) or that they don’t want to label themselves only by their sexual activity
Q – questioning: a person who is still exploring their sexuality or gender identity
I – intersex: a person whose body is not definitively male or female. This may be because they have chromosomes which are not XX or XY or because their genitals or reproductive organs are not considered “standard”
A – allies: a person who identifies as straight but supports people in the LGBTQQIAAP community
A – asexual: a person who is not attracted in a sexual way to people of any gender
P – pansexual: a person whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and may themselves be fluid when it comes to gender or sexual identity
Decolonising the curriculum – a movement which started in higher education and is now growing in primary and secondary settings.
‘decolonising the curriculum’ asks us to think about the implications of a more diverse student body in terms of pedagogy and achievement. Because we live in a society marked by structural inequalities of different kinds, as educators we must work hard to give our students equal opportunities to flourish and succeed. This includes defining and dealing with racism as it is woven into different aspects of university life. When BME students report a sense of alienation from particular topics of study or dynamics in the classroom, we have a duty to address this through dialogue amongst teachers and students.’
[from: https://www.soas.ac.uk/blogs/study/decolonising-curriculum-whats-the-fuss/]
Read more on SOAS website at the link
Intersectionality – awareness that people can belong to different oppressed groups, that we all have multiple identities.
‘Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.
[from: https://www.law.columbia.edu/pt-br/news/2017/06/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality]
Usualise
‘When we usualise something, we acclimatise people to its presence, and take away the threat of difference which creates fear and discrimination. Usualising in schools has more to do with familiarizing learners with a subject’s everyday occurrence or existence rather than an in-depth understanding of the subject.’
[from: http://the-classroom.org.uk/how-to-do-it/usualising-and-actualising/method-1-usualising/]
See the link above for a more in-depth explanation.
Cisgender – people whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.
There are aslo NEU resources on LGBT+ issues here https://neu.org.uk/lgbt .
Inclusive MFL 