Faculty and staff are all responsible for creating welcoming and inclusive environments in the classroom. In recent years, cultural, political and legal resistance to the oppression of transgender people has resulted in greater visibility of the issues facing this population and growing recognition of gender identity and expression discrimination. As these issues gain greater attention, and as obstacles to trans people’s participation in education and employment are addressed, we will likely continue to have more trans people in our classes. These tips may be helpful in ensuring that your classroom is a welcoming place for Carleton’s trans and gender non-binary students, and ensuring that unintentional exclusionary practices are reduced and eliminated, allowing students to perform at their full potential in class. This reaffirms our institution’s commitment to not discriminate based on gender identity and expression.
Watch the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching Center (LTC Session) presentation “Making Class Welcoming for Trans and Gender Non-Binary Students” presented at Carleton College on Thursday, Oct 29th, 2015 with information adapted from original text by Dean Spade, Assistant Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law and the LGBT Campus Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Note: If viewers click on the smaller image in the bottom right corner, they’ll be able to switch between the filming and the screen capture.
A detailed resource sheet, which provides information related to the items below, was created and handed out at the presentation.
- Navigating Names & Pronouns
- Modeling Behavior
- Addressing Mistakes & Correcting Others
- Respecting Boundaries
- Establishing Classroom Guidelines or Community Standards