The Power of Story and Classroom Management in Affirming Sexual and Gender Diversity

From the 起点传媒LGBTQ Advisory Committee

This blog post was written by Katherine Mason Cramer,聽a member of the 起点传媒LGBTQ Advisory Committee.

The Experiences of LGBTQ Students in Middle and High Schools

At the 2019 Kansas Association of Teachers of English鈥檚 energizing KATE Camp last month, I attended a session focused on sexual and gender diversity and equity in the classroom. After sharing resources from , , and curricular ideas from our own classrooms, our focus turned to how teachers can respond effectively to students鈥� use of anti-LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) language. One teacher described how some of his cisgender students would joke around about gender diversity, while other teachers expressed similar frustrations.

According to , a biennial report that provides data on the experiences of 聽LGBTQ youth, grades 6鈥�12, 聽in US schools, 鈥渁 distressing number of LGBTQ students . . . 聽routinely hear anti-LGBTQ language and experience victimization and discrimination at school鈥� by both peers and school staff ().

Additionally, 鈥淟GBTQ middle school students reported a more hostile school climate than LGBTQ high school students,鈥� including biased language, peer victimization, and anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and yet LGBTQ middle school students were less likely than their high school peers to report having LGBTQ-related resources and supports ().

With these finding in mind, school districts should provide LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum and resources, 鈥渃omprehensive anti-bullying policies and supportive transgender/gender nonconforming student policies,鈥� and professional development for educators and administrators to recognize and affirm sexual and gender diversity at the middle school level鈥攚hile also 鈥渁ddressing anti-LGBTQ bias in the younger grades before it becomes engrained in middle school students鈥� behaviors and attitudes鈥� ().

As a former middle school teacher and as someone who recalls her own middle school experience as being both disorienting and disheartening, I know how challenging it can be to promote a classroom and school culture that recognizes and affirms diverse identities and experiences.

The Power of Story

Helping our students develop understanding in terms of empathy and perspective () should be one of our primary goals as English teachers. Story is a way to achieve this goal. Excerpts from young adult literature (YAL) and film, picture books, feature news articles, documentaries, and public service advertisements like can help students acknowledge and confront hurtful, derogatory language and behavior.

Visibility is also key in curricular inclusion.聽 writes that 鈥渨hen children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are part鈥� (1990).

At the same time, 鈥渃hildren from dominant social groups have always found mirrors in books, but they too suffered from the lack of availability of books about others鈥� (Sims Bishop, 1990).

Designing curriculum that integrates the study of sexual and gender diversity alongside all other content helps to interrogate and dismantle . As novelist Chimanda Ngozi Adichie reminds us, 鈥渢he single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete鈥� (). She further impressed this point on us during a General Session at the , reminding listeners that the danger of a single story is just as important today as it always has been, citing coverage of immigrants and the murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi as examples of that importance.

In order to disrupt the single story and provide both mirrors and windows to your students, check out the for recommended picture books, middle grades fiction, and young adult fiction and nonfiction, as well as my article from聽 the .

The Power of Effective Classroom Management

This curricular inclusion should be accompanied by effective classroom management.

If you have students saying things that are disrespectful or harmful, and they refuse to stop, even when you directly state 鈥�,鈥� it鈥檚 time to use your classroom management plan to encourage them to stop.聽 Whatever escalating consequences you have in place (e.g., verbal warning, seat change, removal from the room, phone call home, after school/lunch detention), implement it for disrespectful and harmful language鈥攁longside opportunities to confer with you about why that language or behavior is hurtful. Rebecca Alber calls this a 鈥渘on-negotiable鈥� in .

Enlist the support of colleagues. Check out resources like GLSEN鈥檚 to further educate yourself, your students, and your colleagues. Do not delay. Your students are watching and learning whether or not you are a trusted adult who will stand up for all students.

Start Wielding Your Power

As Dana M. Stachowiak reminds us in , teachers have the power to make curricular and classroom management decisions that positively impact the well-being and learning of all of our students.