Dec 11, 2023
Queer identities and school - (not) an issue?
Gerede e.V. stellt die „Glitzerkiste“ vor
Are there really already experiences of homophobia and trans hostility in elementary school? How important is it to deal with queer identities in primary school? Where can affected parents, children and teachers find help? This is what newcomers, lecturers, associations and a representative of the teacher training center spent a whole day discussing on December 7, 2023 as part of various thematic workshops.
The fact that this workshop day was able to take place at all is primarily thanks to the BQL-GS team of the in-service teacher training program. This includes the lecturers of the primary school team, but also BQL.Digital, who won the Diversity-Sensitive Teaching Award of TU Dresden 2023 and were thus able to support the idea of the day and invited associations such as Gerede e.V. and LAG Queeres Netzwerk Sachsen.
The workshop day on the topic of "Queer identities and school" began with a classification of the diversity dimensions "gender" and "sexuality" in TU Dresden's Diversity Strategy 2030 by Dr. Peggy Germer. She emphasized that diversity should be anchored in mission statements, curricula and teaching/learning materials as a cross-cutting issue in schools. However, there is often a lack of sensitive awareness of the different facets of diversity in order to take consistent action against discrimination.
In the following workshop, Britta Borrego from the Queer Network Saxony laid the conceptual foundations for gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation and physical characteristics or biological sex. This made it possible for all attendees to provide a technically sound basis for the intensive and sometimes very emotional discourse. Britta Borrego pointed out that the coming out of primary school children should be taken seriously and referred to identifying features. After the theoretical input, she reported on her experiences. She told of a child who identified as neither a boy nor a girl and was therefore told to go to the school's disabled toilet during the break. However, only one teacher at the school had the key. If this teacher was not present, the child could not go to the toilet. To avoid this unpleasant confrontation, the child stopped drinking for weeks and months. The result was chronic cystitis.
Vier-Ebenen-Modell: © Visualisierung von Britta Borrego (LAG Queeres Netzwerk Sachsen)
In their workshop, Liam Rogall and Anne-Marie Tombrägel (Gerede e.V.) asked about the experiences of lateral entrants on the situation of queer pupils at elementary school. A lively discussion ensued about how queer children, as well as gay or lesbian parents, are perceived in and by schools. Through the book presentation "Raffi and his pink tutu" (Riccardo Simonetti), both speakers from Gerede e.V. gave an insight into the "glitter box" they had brought with them and showed a child-friendly approach to diversity at primary school age in a vivid way. Both associations pointed out that they are contact partners for schools in Saxony.
In subsequent discussion rounds, Martin Helbig (participant in the BQL GS training course) went into more depth on queer identities. The relevance of gender-appropriate language, e.g. for later career choices, should not be underestimated and was underpinned by Aurica Borszik (BQL GS lecturer) with film contributions. Dr. Anja Mede-Schelenz (BQL GS lecturer) addressed the topic of gender-equitable teaching materials, noting that the topic is hardly touched upon in teaching and learning materials. Dr. Melanie Wohlfahrt (lecturer BQL GS) offered an open discussion framework on the topic: Queer identities: What's it to me? The discussion rounds were very well attended. During the breaks, the participants were able to take a tour of the gender alphabet and expand their knowledge.
Genderalphabet, erstellt von den SHK aus BQL GS
A particular highlight of the day was the panel discussion, which was moderated by Ante Beslic (ZLSB). The guests on the panel were the two invited associations, Martin Helbig and Doris Kästner from the training center. Among other things, the focus was on how a school can become a safe space for queer identities.
In summary, it can be said that the debate about queer identities is only just beginning. It should be an integral part of education across all phases in order to make diversity visible in schools, address cases of discrimination and encourage empathy.
Contact: Peggy Germer (peggy.germer@tu-dresden.de)