What can you do to address heterosexism and support LGBTIQ students?
What can you do to address heterosexism and support LGBTIQ students?
Embedded Files
Being aware of heterosexism in the tertiary environment and providing a supportive space for LGBTIQ students does not require you to be an expert on LGBTIQ issues. You don’t need rewrite your curriculum; there are plenty of small changes you can make to your classroom and pedagogical practice that will make it more inclusive.
In learning environments
There are a number of ways you can use inclusive teaching practices in your everyday teaching:
Example
Inclusive Practice
Using diverse images in teaching material
If your slides have pictures of families on them,consider incorporating a picture of an LGBTIQ relationship or a family featuring same-sex parents.
Using LGBTIQ examples in your essay/test/exam questions
If you have a written question on an exam that features a couple, you could use a non-heterosexual couple, e.g. David and Peter rather than David and Mary.
Use gender neutral language
If asking about a person’s relationship status, use the term partner, as opposed to wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend.
Refer to the class as ‘students,’ ‘people,’ ‘class,’ instead of gendered terms such as ‘ladies,’ and ‘gentlemen.’
If you misgender someone, apologise briefly and start using preferred language, names and pronouns. In that moment, a prolonged discussion about the misgendering may make the person who was misgendered feel worse.
Use consensual pronouns
Because you can’t tell what a person’s preferred pronouns are from looking at them it is important to ask – you can do this by introducing yourself and indicating what your preferred pronouns are. This signals to your students that are you supporting a safe and inclusive environment. To ensure the process is not an othering experience it is important to normalise the practice. This might involve icebreaking activities that include students indicating their preferred pronouns or using nametags which indicate people’s preferred pronouns
In the curriculum
If your curriculum allows, use case studies or examples that feature LGBTIQ experiences and issues:
Humanities
Humanities
If teaching on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States
Example Inclusive Practice
You could include a discussion of Bayard Rustin, an African-American Civil Rights Leader who supported integration and also identified as a gay man.
Education
Education
Example Inclusive Practice
Ask students to workshop how they can engage with anti-LGBTIQ displays at school or in their classroom. How might they respond to parental objections about the inclusion of LGBTIQ curricula?
Statistics
Statistics
Example Inclusive Practice
Use a demographic case study that features LGBTIQ populations, or provide students an option to analyse LGBTIQ demographic trends in a general census.
Visual Arts
Visual Arts
If teaching about surrealist painting
Example Inclusive Practice
Include discussions of artists’ backgrounds, e.g. Frida Kahlo, a surrealist painter who identified as a bisexual woman.
Science, Maths, Technology & Engineering
Science, Maths, Technology & Engineering
If teaching about theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence
Example Inclusive Practice
Include discussions of scientists’/engineers/ mathematicians’ backgrounds, such as that of Alan Turing, the ‘father’ of artificial intelligence who identified as a gay man.
Literature Studies
Literature Studies
If teaching on the gothic literary era
Example Inclusive Practice
Include works by identified LGBTIQ authors and include discussions of their backgrounds, or ask students to identify LGBTIQ themes in various works.
Languages
Languages
Example Inclusive Practice
Teach students how to use gender-neutral pronouns when learning a language with masculine and feminine pronouns.
Social Sciences
Social Sciences
If teaching about social inequality and marginalisation
Example Inclusive Practice
Include gender/sexuality and social inequality, or case studies in your unit that ask students to identify related social issues.
Law
Law
If teaching about history or philosophy of law
Example Inclusive Practice
Include how law has been a source of both repression (e.g. laws criminalising homosexuality) and liberation (e.g. human rights treaties and anti-discrimination legislation).
Business and Economics
Business and Economics
Example Inclusive Practice
Include discussions of how businesses might be involved in leading change in attitudes regarding LGBTIQ issues in the community through the adoption of visibly inclusive practices.
Where possible you should set diverse and inclusive readings that feature LGBTIQ experiences and issues. If this is not possible, consider having a discussion about why the readings don’t include this and why the use of the text was necessary.
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