Queering Classrooms

Teacher Education programs have largely ignored the needs of LGBTIQ learners in their preparation of pre‐service teachers. At best in most of such programs, their needs are addressed in a single chapter in a book or as the topic of discussion in a single class discussion. However, is this minimal discussion enough? What kind of impact does this approach have on future teachers and their future learners? This book engages the reader in a dialogue about why teacher education must address LGBTIQ issues more openly and why teacher education programs should revise their curriculum to more fully integrate the needs of LGBTIQ learners throughout their curriculum, rather than treat such issues as a single, isolated topic in an insignificant manner. Through personal narratives, research, and conceptual chapters, this volume also examines the different ways in which queer youth are present or invisible in schools, the struggles they face, and how teachers can be better prepared to reach them as they should any student, and to make them more visible. The authors of this volume provide insight into the needs of future teachers with the aim of bringing about change in how teacher education programs address LGBTIQ needs to better equip those entering the field of teaching.

"This book provides recommendations on how to make the classroom more inclusive by discussing strategies for selecting inclusive curricular content, and also contains advice to teachers on how to handle student and institutional resistance to creating queer inclusive spaces"--

This inaugural volume of the new book series, Research in Queer Studies is a collection of memoirs or short narrative essays in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer PK-12 teachers and/or administrators (either “out” or “not out”) recount their personal experiences as a queer teachers. The authors of these stores write about significant experiences that describe how their sexual identity has shaped who they are today as teachers/administrators, by answering the following questions: • In light of your sexual identity, how did you become who you are today? • Why did you decide to become a teacher? What role did your sexual identity play in that decision? • What kinds of significant moments, including queer issues (e.g., bullying) regarding students and/or yourself, have you experience in your teaching? • In light of who you are as an individual, what do you hope to achieve and become as a queer teacher in the future?

Perspectives and identity are typically reinforced at a young age, giving teachers the responsibility of selecting reading material that could potentially change how the child sees the world. This is the importance of sharing diverse literature with today’s children and young adults, which introduces them to texts that deal with religion, gender identities, racial identities, socioeconomic conditions, etc. Teachers and librarians play significant roles in placing diverse books in the hands of young readers. However, to achieve the goal of increasing young people’s access to diverse books, educators and librarians must receive quality instruction on this topic within their university preparation programs. The Handbook of Research on Teaching Diverse Youth Literature to Pre-Service Professionals is a comprehensive reference source that curates promising practices that teachers and librarians are currently applying to prepare aspiring teachers and librarians for sharing and teaching diverse youth literature. Given the importance of sharing diverse books with today’s young people, university educators must be aware of engaging and effective methods for teaching diverse literature to pre-service teachers and librarians. Covering topics such as syllabus development, diversity, social justice, and activity planning, this text is essential for university-level teacher educators, library educators who prepare pre-service teachers and librarians, university educators, faculty, adjunct instructors, researchers, and students.

The first book of its kind in North America, Queering Social Work Education combines LGBTQ history and personal narratives from a diverse range of queer social work educators and students with much-needed analyses and recommendations. This book will help readers develop awareness, dismantle prejudice, and contribute positively to the future of social work education, research, policy, and practice.

In this beautiful children’s picture book by Vivek Shraya, author of the acclaimed God Loves Hair, a five-year-old South Asian boy becomes fascinated with his mother’s bindi, the red dot commonly worn by Hindu women to indicate the point at which creation begins, and wishes to have one of his own. Rather than chastise her son, she agrees to it, and teaches him about its cultural significance, allowing the boy to discover the magic of the bindi, which in turn gives him permission to be more fully himself. Beautifully illustrated by Rajni Perera, The Boy & the Bindi is a joyful celebration of gender and cultural difference. Ages 3 to 6. Vivek Shraya is a performer, musician, and filmmaker, and the authors of God Loves Hair and She of the Mountains. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A book with many images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

This anthology is a symposium on queer space and queer utopias. Through the presentation of empirical work by contemporary queer theorists this book aims to create a critical dialogue about the emergence of queer spaces and the ways in which they aim to further queer futurity.

This volume assembles a range of writers from diverse backgrounds and geographies to examine five broadly-defined areas in elementary education: foundational issues; social and sexual development; curriculum; the family; and gay/lesbian educators and their allies.