CREATING AFFIRMING AND JUST SCHOOLS: THE GENDER SPECTRUM AND BEST PRACTICES FOR SERVING LGBTQ YOUTH
April 16 & 17, 2020
8:30 am to 3:30 PM
Hanahau’oli School
1922 Makiki Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
Course Fee: $200 for the 2-day workshop
To feel safe and to feel seen. To feel valued and to feel capable of growth. These are simple concepts—basic pillars of student achievement and the results of good pedagogy. For many students who don’t conform to narrow gender norms and LGBTQ students, these rights remain out of reach. — Teaching Tolerance
Students who don’t conform to narrow gender norms and LGBTQ students deserve to have their identities affirmed by educators across grades, subject areas, and schools. This workshop will engage participants in thinking about how we can improve curriculum, pedagogy, and policies to better support the experience of LGBTQ students in our schools. Participants will gain a conceptual understanding of heteronormativity and cisnormativity before applying those concepts to their own contexts. They will learn about the gender spectrum in an effort to move beyond the pink/blue binary to support students who don’t conform to narrow gender norms. They will be introduced to readings, participate in discussions, and review a number of powerful resources designed to support educators and school leaders on their journey to create just schools for LGBTQ youth. They will learn how the pervasiveness of heteronormativity and cisnormativity requires challenging them at all educational levels, from elementary school to graduate education. By naming and challenging systems of harm, they will explore how educators can work together to create teaching and learning spaces where LGBTQ students have their identities affirmed.
The 2-day workshop will be followed by a free public talk at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Education:
SAFETY IS NOT ENOUGH: CREATING AFFIRMING AND JUST SCHOOLS FOR LGBTQ YOUTH
Friday, April 17, 2020
5:30 to 7:30 pm
UH Manoa College of Education CCC, Wist Hall 134
Contemporary political rhetoric from supporters of LGBTQ rights frequently call for “safe” schools for LGBTQ youth. While safety is important, especially considering the statistics relating to bullying, safety cannot be the ultimate goal. The present political moment, in which the executive branch is using its weight to curtail the progress made for LGBTQ students, demands the necessity of affirming and just schools for LGBTQ students, families, and communities. We can challenge the ingrained homophobia and transphobia that are part of the daily realities of schools through curricular and pedagogical activism. This free public talk outlines how such activism within and outside of classrooms could look. For more information about the free talk, please visit the Hanahau’oli School website at: https://www.hanahauoli.org/pdc-calendar/2020/gendertalk