Beyond Pronouns: Gender Expansive and Democratizing Teacher Education Practice

• In Event: Gender-Expansive and Democratizing Teacher Education: Envisioning Teaching and Teacher Education for Intersectional Justice

Abstract

Objectives
Political pressure increasingly aims to silence and erase non-normative gender expression in schools (Sachs & Friedman, 2022), yet schools remain crucial sites for supporting gender expansive youth (Mangin, 2022). This paper presents a conceptual framework and model for gender expansive and democratizing teacher education: scaffolding preservice teachers’ (PSTs) critical, nuanced, and playful understandings of gender—identity and embodiment—as central in preparing teachers to build equity. We draw from nascent literature, our research (Authors, 2019, 2020), and teacher educator experiences to present an actionable roadmap for change.

Perspectives
While many teacher preparation (TP) programs embrace social justice, curriculum rarely includes explorations of how marginalized identities, including gender identity and sexuality, are co-constructed through interlocking systems of oppression (Collins, 1990; Gorski et al., 2013; Meyer, 2022). Gender expansive and democratizing teacher education expands beyond preparing teachers to protect the rights of trans children (Martino et al., 2020), drawing from antiracist, queer, and feminist methods to democratize our understandings of gender in our classrooms and make space for all students to experience and express gender, enhancing our social justice commitments (Authors, in press).

Modes of Inquiry
This theoretical paper synthesizes literature, building a conceptual framework for transforming teacher education by: supporting the growth and learning of teacher educators (TEs) and integrating opportunities across the TP curriculum to explore and enact concepts of gender expansive and democratizing practice. Translating into practice Meyer’s (2022) synthesis of five principles of transgender studies in education—welcoming people’s full humanities, valuing polyvocality, centering trans experiential knowledge, and exploring how trans oppression intersects with other oppression—our model focuses on preparing teacher educators, and engaging PSTs to experience the humanity of all students and take up critical inquiry about gender/sexuality oppression and trans intelligibility.

Point of View
Building TE Capacity
Often neglected in graduate training, TEs frequently learn knowledge and skills needed to effectively prepare PSTs through “happenstance” and experience (Goodwin et al., 2014). While few studies investigate TEs’ understandings of gender expansive practice, research suggests that few TP programs incorporate LGBTQ+ topics (Gorski et al., 2013). We argue TP programs committed to social justice need to support TEs’ learning in communities of practice to incorporate gender expansive practice.

Shifting TP Curriculum towards Gender Expansiveness & Democracy
For meaningful, humanizing change to occur in schools, we need to scaffold PSTs to envision practices extending beyond protecting and accommodating trans students (Authors, 2020). Utilizing Meyer’s (2022) principles, we suggest TP must include two vital focus areas: cultivating PSTs’ deep empathy and building gender expansive lenses to enhance tools of systemic analysis of schooling. Drawing on research literature and our evolving practice, we describe how these approaches could be incorporated across TP foundations, methods, and field courses, scaffolding students’ understanding and practice with gradually increasing complexity.

Significance
This paper provides an innovative conceptual framework, synthesizing nascent research, useful for designing future research and practice-based integrations of gender expansive and democratizing content across TP curriculum, to enhance intersectional, social justice TP.

Authors

• Elizabeth E. Blair, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
  Presenting Author

• Sherry L. Deckman, Lehman College - CUNY
  Presenting Author