Beyond Pronouns: The Case for Gender-Expansive and Democratizing Practice in Teacher Education

Abstract

Many teacher education programs are committed to social justice. This commentary argues that gender-expansive education—teaching that opens up, democratizes, and complicates our understandings of gender, gender identity, and gendered embodiment in our classrooms in ways that make space for all kinds of students—must be meaningfully, intersectionally included in teacher education that aims to promote equity, democracy, and freedom through schooling. We suggest ways that teacher education programs can leverage many of the critical skills and dispositions already cultivated in social justice education to integrate gender-expansive perspectives throughout their curriculum.

Keywords

teacher education teacher preparation equity gender gender identity trans education intersectionality

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Blair

E. E.

Deckman

S. L.

(2019). “We cannot imagine”: U.S. preservice teachers’ othering of trans and gender creative identified student experiences. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86(102915), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102915

Blair

E. E.

Deckman

S. L.

(2020). “Distressing” situations and differentiated interventions: Preservice teachers’ imagined futures with trans and gender-creative students. Teachers College Record, 122(7), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812012200704

Bronfenbrenner

(1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32(7), 513–531. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.32.7.513

Bruner

J. S.

(1960). The process of education. Harvard University Press.

Chubbuck

S. M.

Zembylas

(2008). The emotional ambivalence of socially just teaching: A case study of a novice urban schoolteacher. American Educational Research Journal, 45(2), 274–318. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831207311586

Collins

P. H.

(1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Unwin Hyman.

Connell

(2009). Gender. Polity.

Cornelius-White

(2007). Learner-centered teacher-student relationships are effective: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 113–143. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298563

Deckman

S. L.

Montilla

(2015). Being tall isn’t exactly the same thing as being Black. In Martin

(Ed.), Racial battle fatigue: Insights from the front lines of social justice advocacy (pp. 55–65). Praeger.

10.

Elliott

Blair

E. E.

(2020). Measured vulnerability: Teaching for social justice in unsettling times. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 33(2), 229– 239. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1681550

11.

Frohard-Dourlent

(2016). “I don’t care what’s under your clothes”: The discursive positioning of educators working with trans and gender-nonconforming students. Sex Education, 16(1), 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2015.1022819

12.

Gehlbach

Brinkworth

M. E.

Harris

A. D.

(2012). Changes in teacher–student relationships. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 690–704. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2011.02058.x

13.

Gehlbach

Brinkworth

M. E.

King

A. M.

Hsu

L. M.

McIntyre

Rogers

(2016). Creating birds of similar feathers: Leveraging similarity to improve teacher–student relationships and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 342–352. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000042

14.

Goodwin

A. L.

Smith

Souto-Manning

Cheruvu

Tan

M.Y.

Reed

Taveras

(2014). What should teacher educators know and be able to do? Perspectives from practicing teacher educators. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114535266

15.

Gorski

P. C.

Davis

S. N.

Reiter

(2013). An examination of the (in)visibility of sexual orientation, heterosexism, homophobia, and other LGBTQ concerns in U.S. multicultural teacher education coursework. Journal of LGBT Youth, 10(3), 224–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2013.798986

16.

hicks

b. l.

(2016). Beyond this or that: Challenging the limits of binary language in elementary education through poetry, word art, and creative bookmaking. In Miller

(Ed.), Teaching, affirming, and recognizing trans and gender creative youth: A queer literacy framework (pp. 81–106). Palgrave Macmillan.

17.

Ingrey

J. C.

(2014). The limitations and possibilities for teaching transgender issues in education to preservice teachers. In Meyer

E. J.

Sansfaçon

A. P.

(Eds.), Supporting transgender and gender creative youth: Schools, families, and communities in action (pp. 97–110). Peter Lang.

18.

Ladson-Billings

(1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34(3), 159–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849509543675

19.

Ladson-Billings

(2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: a.k.a. the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.p2rj131485484751

20.

Lave

Wenger

(1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.

21.

Martino

Cumming-Potvin

(2018). Transgender and gender expansive education research, policy and practice: Reflecting on epistemological and ontological possibilities of bodily becoming. Gender and Education, 30(6), 687–694. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2018.1487518

22.

Martino

Kassen

Omercajic

(2020). Supporting transgender students in schools: Beyond an individualist approach to trans inclusion in the education system. Educational Review, 74(4), 753–772. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2020.1829559

23.

Meyer

E. J.

Tilland-Stafford

Airton

(2016). Transgender and gender-creative students in PK–12 schools: What we can learn from their teachers. Teachers College Record, 118(8), 1–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811611800806

24.

Miller

. (2019). About gender identity and justice in schools and communities. Teachers College Press.

25.

Miller

. (2020). Gender identity complexity is trans-sectional turn: Expanding the theory of trans*+ ness into literacy practice. In Mayo

Blackburn

(Eds.), Queer, trans, and intersectional theory in educational practice: Student, teacher, and community experiences (pp. 35–49). Routledge.

26.

Pascoe

C. J.

(2007). Dude, you’re a fag: Masculinity and sexuality in high school. University of California Press.

27.

Payne

Smith

(2014). The big freak out: Educator fear in response to the presence of transgender elementary school students. Journal of Homosexuality, 61(3), 399–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2013.842430

28.

Rands

K. E.

(2009). Considering transgender people in education: A gendercomplex approach. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(4), 419–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109341475

29.

Ringrose

Renold

(2010). Normative cruelties and gender deviants: The performative effects of bully discourses for girls and boys in school. British Educational Research Journal, 36(4), 573–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920903018117

30.

Sachs

Friedman

(2022). Educational gag orders target speech about LGBTQ+ identities with new prohibitions and punishments. PEN America. https://pen.org/educational-gag-orders-target-speech-about-lgbtq-identities-with-new-prohibitions-and-punishments/

31.

Shalaby

(2017). Troublemakers: Lessons in freedom from young children at school. The New Press.

32.

Shields

S. A.

(2008). Gender: An intersectionality perspective. Sex Roles, 59, 301–311. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9501-8

33.

Wright

Boonstra

Nankin

Blair

E. E.

(2019). Changing through relationships and reflection: An exploratory investigation of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of young children experiencing homelessness. Early Childhood Education Journal, 47(3), 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-018-0921-y