Gender and sexuality in ELT – inclusive education vs. queer pedagogy

This plenary looks at some of the reasons behind the continued reinforcement of heteronormativity in ELT materials, tests and teacher training, as well as possible ways forward.

Date
Duration
60 minutes

About the talk

After more than half a century of profound social change and legislative reform across much of the world, issues of gender and sexuality remain problematic in English language teaching and in education more generally. Despite limited progress in certain domains, English language teaching materials, English language tests and many teacher education courses continue to reproduce and reinforce heteronormativity – referred to by Deborah Cameron and Don Kulick (2003: 55) as 'those structures, institutions, relations and actions that promote and produce heterosexuality as natural, self-evident, desirable, privileged, and necessary'. Such a situation denies recognition to those students who are gender and sexuality non-conforming, ignores those who are questioning their gender identity or their sexual orientation, and fails to educate all about the complexity of the world in which we live.

In this talk I explore some of the reasons behind this state of affairs and I look at ways in which it has been suggested this can be remedied. On the one hand, there is the case for inclusive education in which recognition is accorded to previously erased groups. Drawing on examples of how this has been done, I suggest that there are pitfalls to such an approach being thoughtlessly applied – as the appearance of terms such as homonormativity, homocapitalism, homonationalism and pink-washing reveal. On the other hand, there is the more radical case for queer pedagogy, which I argue is congruent with the principles of critical pedagogy and a view of education as 'the practice of freedom' (Hooks, 1994). Paradoxically, this approach may be more appropriate for teachers working in those parts of the world where inclusivity is taboo.

Comments

Submitted by GusGalvao on Tue, 06/06/2023 - 18:35

A very much necessary topic to be debated within the ESL sector. Very well done!

Submitted by Sajjad Haider on Wed, 04/03/2019 - 17:17

I need some course on the subject matter.

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 06:51

In reply to by Sajjad Haider

Hi Sajjad, You could take a look at our online courses and modules here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training-courses There are lots of training courses on different aspects of teaching and classroom practice. You might be especially interested in our modules on inclusive practice, like these: https://teachingenglish.english.britishcouncil.org/student/Catalogue/CatalogueCategory.aspx?id=838bf97c-0566-4470-8aaa-a49dcbc85be9 I hope you find that helpful. Thanks, Cath TE Team

Submitted by careynoso on Wed, 04/03/2019 - 14:06

There's a problem with the audio in John Gray's recorded plenary that prevents us from hearing him. Is this being taken care of? Thanks a lot!!

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Wed, 04/03/2019 - 14:41

In reply to by careynoso

Thanks for letting us know. We will see if we can resolve this audio issue. Thanks, Cath TE Team

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