Reforming School Reform: The Need for Addressing Gender and Sexuality Issues in Teacher Preparation Programs

• In Event: 35.058 - Women Leading for Social Justice Across P–20 Contexts

Abstract

When considering diversity and social justice issues in teacher education, it is important to understand that addressing these issues also includes gender and sexual identity issues. When one considers that over three-fourths of teachers in the US are female (IES, n.d.), coupled with the rash of reports of bullying and harassment of, and often leading to dire consequences for, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students (Dotinga, May 16, 2013), it becomes clear that addressing gender and sexuality issues in teacher preparation programs is critical to creating a “safe space” for all students, ultimately undergirding the purposes of schooling while also accomplishing social justice.

The statistics regarding LGBTQ youths’ experiences in middle and high schools are startling:
• 61% felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and nearly 40% felt unsafe because of how they expressed their gender.
• 85% were verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened) at school because of their sexual orientation and 64% were verbally harassed because of their gender expression.
• 40% were physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 27% were because of their gender expression.
• 19% reported being physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked, injured with a weapon) because of their sexual orientation, and 14% were physically assaulted because of their gender expression (Kosciw, Greytak, Diaz, Bartkiewicz, 2010).
A similar study was also conducted in regards to the climate for LGBTQ youth in elementary schools (Harris Interactive, 2012).
• 45% of students reported that they hear comments like “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” from other kids at school sometimes, often or all of the time.
• 49% of teachers said that they heard students in their school use the word “gay” in a negative way sometimes, often or very often.

These statistics make it clear that this is a population that teachers need to be prepared to work with. Although most teacher education programs attempt to prepare future teachers to work with students from other marginalized groups (African American, the poor or working class, etc.), they are not being adequately prepared to recognize or address gender or sexual identity issues in their classrooms.

This paper’s purpose is two-fold. First, I discuss the literature that addresses the ways in which teachers and school leaders can make classrooms and school contexts safer spaces for LGBTQ students and for students that come from LGBTQ families. Second, I present the best practices regarding preparing teacher educators to help pre-service and in-service teachers to address issues of gender and sexuality in their PreK-12 classrooms.

Author

• Cathy A.R. Brant, University of South Carolina - Columbia