Gender-Just Language Pedagogies.

Cite as: Knisely, K. (23 March, 2022). Gender-just language pedagogies. Illuminating the T in LGBTQ: Perspectives from the Field. LGBT Professional Learning Network Plenary session at the TESOL International Association Convention and English Language Expo. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Program description: Within TESOL advocacy, the pendulum of focus for LGBTQ+ concerns seldom settles on the experiences of trans and nonbinary people. In this LGBTQ PLN academic session, Dr. Kris Knisely shares their suggestions for gender-just language pedagogies and discusses how educators can engage with gender in ways that both center trans knowledges and honor trans and nonbinary colleagues and students.
In-Person Screening & Discussion: Wednesday, 23 March, 14:00-15:30 US EST in Room 304 at The David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Extended abstract: Language education represents a site for identity (re)construction, mediated through language acquisition and use. Through acts such as speaking, reading, and writing, learners and educators must linguistically position themselves and be positioned by others. In this way, language education encourages reflections not only on the identities that we take up as learners and educators, but also on other aspects of who we are in relation to the broader social world. Although language learning allows students to (re)imagine, (re)invent, and explore new linguistic and cultural identities, there is often limited attention to queer and trans knowledges in the curriculum, textbooks, research, and pedagogy of language classrooms. This has left many educators to report feeling particularly un- or under-prepared to engage in gender-just language teaching and, thus, many students to find themselves in classrooms that do not always engage deeply with gender justice. In following, this talk invites participants to reflect on the ways that we might all remake, reimagine, and reinvent our language classrooms, materials, and pedagogical approaches to resist normativities and narratives of oppression and to recenter trans knowledges and possibilities of being. This entails considering ongoing processes of queer and trans remaking, reimagining, and reinventing can help us to better serve all of our students, particularly in terms of increasing classroom inclusiveness, fostering tolerance of ambiguity, and the development of linguistic, symbolic, and intercultural competencies. This talk will focus on situating the teaching and learning of English in a gender-just, trans-affirming pedagogical framework, although much of the discussion remains applicable to the teaching and learning of languages writ large.

Upcoming webinar, free and open to the public: 11 May 2022 (4-5:30pm AZ, click here for other time zones). The Gender-Just Language Education Project: Benefits, Challenges, and Strategies for Engaging with Trans Knowledges. Click here for additional details.

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