This week’s tips come from our recent VOISES panel on LGBTQIA+ student experiences. Here are the teaching tips that emerged from the panel discussion, and you can read the full summary by clicking the link below.
- Be informed, curious, and educate yourself. Avoid putting students on the spot who may identify as LGBTQIA+ by not asking them to speak on behalf of the queer community as a whole. A good first step to educating yourself is to review this LGBTQIA+ glossary of terms and reading literature written by queer authors. The student panelists recommended the following websites that are particularly informative: Guilford Green, Trevor Project, HRC: Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Guilford Green Foundation
- Attend safe zone training that is carefully planned to provide a baseline understanding of language used within the LGBTQIA+ community while recognizing that identity is complex and language is ever-changing. Safe zone is offered as a series of in-person workshops or a virtual training in Canvas so you can choose one that best fits your schedule! You can also encourage students to attend safe zone training themselves or invite the Office of Intercultural Engagement (OIE) to come into your class and run a session.
- Take steps to diversify the curriculum to include voices and viewpoints outside of the typical scholars that you may have learned about in your own experience. You can also provide students opportunities to explore queer topics (and other areas of interest) in their assignments whenever possible. It’s also important not assume all students are straight and talk about heterosexuality or cisgender experiences as the norm.
- Recognise your privilege and position of power and use it to educate others and support the queer community and all minority students.
- Ask all students their pronouns (not “preferred” pronouns which invalidates their reality and implies impermanence or that their pronouns are optional), and encourage everyone to use them correctly. If asking for pronouns on a survey, ask this as an open-ended question instead of check boxes as the combinations of pronoun use may surprise you.
- Encourage all students to be informed and to engage in discussion with queer students. You can help promote OIE’s Spartans in Dialogue program as a way for students to learn how to engage in productive dialogue across difference.