Event: Emerging and Established Queer Terminology in the English Language Classroom
Date: Wednesday 4 March 2020
Time: 17:00 - 19:00
Venue: Open Access Area, Faculty of Education, Rm 224, First Floor, Old Humanities Building
Chair: Prof. Carmel Borg, Editor, Malta Review of Educational Research
Speaker: Dr Eileen Ariza
Abstract
To avoid gender and sexual‐orientation‐based discrimination, teachers need to create inclusive, nonthreatening classrooms where students feel safe and accepted for who they are. Traditionally, teachers have been taught not to discuss their own or their students’ sexual orientation and gender identity, and that these issues have no place within the classroom environment or curriculum (Lilienthal, Matyo‐Cepero, Messinger, Mims, 2018). Students may be from more liberal countries where life as a queer person is more equitable or from countries where life as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, or intersex (LGBTQI) person can put them in grave danger. Countries that are not accepting of alternative lifestyles or non-binary (i.e., male or female) classifications jeopardise individuals who relate to non-mainstream sexual and gender‐based identities. As a result, terminology that describes a number of different self‐identifying terms has been incorporated into the English language. This presentation addresses current and emerging queer terminology that educators may be unaware of, and describes the use of pronouns that students may choose when describing themselves.