Abstract
Education is a right for all human beings regardless of their ethnicity, gender and sexual identity, economic status, age, beliefs, and mental or physical capacities. However, research shows that LGBTIQ+ people and their experiences have been traditionally ignored in school curricula, textbooks, and classroom discourse. For this reason, scholars highlight the need to implement inclusive pedagogies in which the rights of LGBTIQ+ people are recognized and respected. This chapter presents a teaching proposal for the integration of LGBTIQ+ issues in the Primary English as a Foreign Language classroom. The tasks are based on the English for Social Purposes and Cooperation Approach, a socially and culturally responsive approach to English language teaching that promotes language learning through topics of social and cultural relevance. Using various learning methodologies, this proposal intends to help students develop their communicative competence and critical thinking, overcome potential misconceptions, improve empathy and awareness, and learn about the reality of LGBTIQ+ people.
TopCrucial Terms To Understand The Reality Of Lgbtiq+ People
According to the Collins English Dictionary (Collins, 2022), the term “sex” is defined as “the sum of the characteristics that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive function” or “either of the two categories, male or female, into which organisms are placed on this basis” (para. 13-14). On the other hand, the term ‘gender’ can be understood as “the state of being male or female with reference to socially and culturally defined characteristics of masculinity or femininity, or of having an identity that does not correspond to such characteristics” (Collins, 2022, para. 14). These two terms are key for understanding the diversity of gender and sexual identities among students (American Psychological Association, 2015) since they establish the difference between what is biological and what is social and identity for individuals.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Gender and Sexual Identity: A term used to encompass all aspects of a person’s gender identity (i.e., one’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth) and sexual orientation (i.e., one’s emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to individuals regardless of their gender).
ESoPC: Acronym for English for Social Purposes and Cooperation.
Primary Education: Elementary education, including students from (generally) 6 to 12 years old.
English for Social Purposes and Cooperation: An approach to English language learning that aims at developing students’ communicative competence, cultural awareness, and social responsibility through the integration of topics of social and cultural relevance in the teaching process.
Queer Education: An approach to educational praxis that seeks to challenge heteronormative structures and ideas in education, give voice to queer and/or non-normative individuals and experiences, and develop safe classroom environments for queer educational stakeholders.
LGBTIQ+ Issues: It refers to topics related to the reality of LGBTIQ+ people.
EFL: English as a Foreign Language.
Queering EFL: A practice that entails “engaging [EFL] students in critical pedagogies that cast all identities and their discoursal maintenance into question” ( Paiz, 2019 , p. 1).