For many students, exposure to diverse voices and identities may only happen at school. As a result, it is our responsibility, as educators, to transform our teaching practices to not only highlight but normalize various gender identities. 

To achieve this goal, there are three main strategies outlined by UNICEF (2021):

• Teacher education aiming to promote equitable teaching practices (i.e. professional development, pre-teaching program instruction, anti-hate models)

• Curriculum reform that strives to incorporate various lived experiences

• Teacher to teacher development wherein we collaborate with colleagues and peers to ensure this model spans eqaully across classrooms

This level of the approach focuses on highlighting diverse perspectives on the basis of heroes, holidays, or specific cultural/societal impacts.

In a French classroom, an example of this would be reading a book about a notable Transgender individual on International Day of Trans Visibility and answering reading comprehension questions.

The additive approach incorporates diverse voices and representation without inherently changing the curriculum.

For example, this could be conducting a French novel study that features a non-binary side character; however, the study's main focus still remains on the cis-gendered main characters and their experiences.

The transformative approach is the first goal for educators. This level takes the additive approach and enhances it to not only incorporate but highlight diverse gendered perspectives, while inherently changing the curriculum.

An example of this would be conducting a French novel study in which the main character is non-binary. As opposed to the additive approach, this study would highlight the main characters experiences in relation to their identity.

The fourth approach takes a social justice perspective and aims to promote students to act on certain issues in society. If the previous three levels are successfully achieved by the teacher, students should gain the skills to critically analyze the world around them. 

Continuing with the example of the novel study, this means adding a culmulative task that features an element of raising awareness for the issues that non-binary individuals may face at the hands of society.