Gender is Like The Ocean: Exploring All-Gender Identity in Response to a Young Adult Novel

• In Event: Gender Is Like the Ocean: Exploring All-Gender Identity in Response to a Young Adult Novel

Abstract

This alternative session features a screening of Gender is Like the Ocean, a 45-minute film that documents a group of adolescents and teachers as they grapple with questions about gender, identity, social justice, representation, and inclusion. The film traces a several-month process of inquiry involving middle school students and teacher candidates from the University of Toronto who co-authored critical literacy curriculum for Kristin Cronn-Mills’s young adult novel, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children (2012) and co-researched that process. This session has implications for critical literacy approaches to teaching texts that address complex social and identity issues.

Authors

• Rob Simon, University of Toronto

• Pamela Baer

• benjamin lee hicks, University of Toronto

• Ty Walkland, University of Toronto

• Sarah Evis, Toronto District School Board 

• Ben Gallagher, University of Toronto