Identity In Schools

 These readings all center on the topic of identity in schools. In particular they address the protection of rights of students, teacher, and leaders in the LGBTQ+ community. 

Each of these articles has a particular focus and audience. The Rethinking Schools' article, "Queering Our Schools," approaches the topic on a national level. They highlight contrasts in contextual complexity and ask questions about how values surrounding these topics present themselves in school contexts. They also, importantly, frame the protection and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community as a curricular opportunity. 

Zooming in to RI, the RI Department of Education official policy is a statewide statement of protection for the LGBTQ+ community. It is super comprehensive in the way it frames the issue as a continuation of long-standing legal precedents. This is empowering in itself. It also goes on to name very clearly where the RI DOE stands on these issues, emphatically in favor of protecting and honoring gender identification and expression. 

The PPSD statement goes another zoom closer and hones in on Providence Public School's specifically. Both this and the RI DOE texts gave, what's for me, a super helpful list of definitions and terms. They give guidance about how school leaders and teachers should be engaging with students on these issues. 

I would love a document like this for my school district, Achievement First Rhode Island. It may exist, but got lost for me in all of the other policies and forms. If anyone at AF knows about this, please let me know in the comments. 

At my school, about once a year, during Pride Month, we are instructed to talk about these topics with our advisees. This doesn't seem like enough. I would love more professional development that gives me the language and tools to engage my students with these topics. 

Engaging with these texts this week has made me realize this is actually a pressing issue for me. It's something I've wanted to engage more with my students, but I'm not sure how. I almost want to scrap my original project idea and focus on prepping for a conversation with our Dean of Culture about how to bring more engagement about gender identity safely into my classroom. 

These policy based texts, especially the one from RIDE, would be grounding in a conversation about how to take practical steps at my school. 

What do you all think? I'm curious. I'm also curious what you all thought about these texts in general. Were they encouraging? Do they do enough? Do they actually protect students, teachers, leaders?