Opening Conversations About Homophobia and Heterosexism:
Talking and Learning with Pre-service Teachers
Jeane F. Copenhaver-Johnson
While there exists no recipe for opening anti-homophobia conversations with pre-service teachers, I share below a few methods I have employed to create environments for conversation, reflection, and action around homophobia and heterosexism.
1. Ask teacher education students to name occasions when they have challenged homophobia.
Ask pre-service teachers to identify times (specific incidents) when they challenged homophobic comments or behaviors that demonstrated heterosexism. These examples can become critical incidents for discussion and reflection. Likewise, conversations can be opened when/if students report that they have never taken such action—or if they have only taken such actions outside of school settings. Although I have not used role-playing in my classes, my students and I have used critical incidents to analyze (1) why they might have chosen not to confront someone about homophobia, (2) what consequences others—including cooperating teachers and children in classrooms—likely experienced as a result of that silence, (3) how the challenge or feeling of threat that prevented response could be overcome in future interactions, and/or (4) what we can learn from the stories of times when we did take an active stand. These conversations become rehearsals for moments students will encounter in the future, so students familiarize themselves with a range of ways they might be able to behave as advocates and allies, particularly in the presence of youth.
2. Open conversations about homophobia and heterosexism in courses other than just the stand-alone multicultural education class.
Help students identify their own heterosexism in various courses—not just courses about multicultural education. Doing so can help overcome the belief that “diversity” has been “covered and learned” (and is, therefore, finished) in the multicultural education class. For example, one strategy I use, when we discuss reader-response in an undergraduate reading course, is reading aloud the children’s picturebook Like Likes Like (Raschka, 1999). The beautifully illustrated book focuses on a lonely cat who finds, and falls in love with, another cat. Once I have read it aloud, I ask students to identify the theme of the story. They generally hypothesize loneliness, the power of friendship, and even interracial love (one cat is white, the other brown) as themes. I then tell them that I understand Raschka may have written this text to describe a loving homosexual relationship, and we explore how this interpretation never occurred to them. Since the cat who befriends the protagonist is never referenced by a gendered pronoun or name, the reader reads gender into the story. I have repeatedly found this reader-response experience yields a helpful opportunity to demonstrate the pervasiveness of heterosexism, even for those of us who do not believe we are heterosexist, and to challenge heterosexism across the curriculum.
3. Bring real and virtual mentors to teacher education students.
In addition to sharing documentaries such as It’s Elementary (Chasnoff & Cohen, 1997) and Out of the Past (Dupre & Ferris, 1997) with my students, I also have sought opportunities for students to encounter and hear the stories of real-life gay, lesbian, and transgender people and straight allies. Real encounters can help challenge the stereotypical beliefs pre-service teachers may hold (e.g., “I won’t have any gay kids in my middle school classroom” or “Bullying isn’t really a problem today.”). Recently, a Youth Video OUTreach project in Columbus, Ohio produced a film entitled 20 Straws: Growing Up Gay (Youth Video OUTreach, 2007). The documentary, student-written and produced, covers the stories of nine gay, lesbian, and ally youth. Pre-service teachers in my program watched the film at a screening attended by several of the youth producers, and students reported amazement after seeing the film and meeting the courageous young activists who participated in the production. When my students came to care about these young people, they became more empathetic to the harassment suffered by other youth.
4. Invite students to look for examples of homophobia and heterosexism with you and share what they learn.
Once they know how to recognize it, they can reject it. Therefore, I ask students to look for everyday examples of heterosexism and homophobia with me. In a recent class, an adult, female teacher education student analyzing teen magazines showed an example of tear-out Valentine inserts in the magazine—valentines with scantily clad males pictured. Another student (male) asked if he could borrow the valentines to add to a collection of commercially produced valentines he was analyzing for gender-related content. Some members of the class giggled when a student said that people might wonder why he would carry around valentines with scantily clad males, but the borrower said, “I don’t care what they think. I’m not a homophobe.” Suddenly, students realized that they were laughing at homophobia and rethought their responses. He was commended for the quick recognition and response. There’s power in being able to recognize, name, and reject homophobia.
5. Share narratives of your own learning so students can see your growth and honesty.
Finally, although this may be painful, it helps to tell stories of times when we (teacher-educators) came to better understand heterosexism and homophobia. Such tales can help us create climates that feel safer for self-reflection and disclosure. These stories usually focus on becoming self-aware of a behavior inconsistent with our social justice values. I share with my students how, a few years ago, I enthusiastically received congratulatory wishes about my new marriage. In many of these settings, my gay and lesbian friends and colleagues were present, and, in the moment, I was not conscious of the ways I reinforced heterosexism by (1) having chosen to validate my love relationship by entering an institution that is denied, in my state, to everyone, and (2) expecting that others would be as happy as I was about the event. Only later did I realize that I had invoked heterosexual privilege in a range of ways by being married and by naively celebrating that privilege in the presence of my friends who were denied this right. Once I share this confession with students, I can also share how I have responded to this realization—by becoming more conscious that the term “husband” to describe my partner is heterosexist and by being an even more vocal advocate for same-sex partners’ marriage and adoption rights. The idea is that we are never done un-learning heterosexism in this society, and we all have a responsibility to reflect on our own behaviors. Telling our own stories helps foster environments where otherwise reluctant students might share their own with us. Sharing and trust (at least much as we can foster) are essential to dialogue.
Of course, some students will always resist these methods and values, and I expect, and receive, some backlash as I carry out this work. However, being an example in the university classroom, being “out” as an advocate, and integrating social justice values across the teacher education program increasingly results in fostering the development of the students like Stacey—those students who want to be advocates but whose mentors have not demonstrated how to go about this work. My students and I continue to work, and research, together to improve our practice.
References
Cohen, H. S. (Producer), & Chasnoff, D. (Producer & Director). (1997). It’s elementary:
Talking About gay issues in school [Film]. Women’s Educational Media: San Francisco, CA.
Dupre, J. (Producer & Director), & Ferrari, M. (Producer). (1997). Out of the past:
The struggle for gay and lesbian rights in America [Motion picture]. United States: Out of the Past Film Project, Inc.
Raschka, C. (1999). Like likes Like. New York: DK Publishing.
Youth Video OUTreach (Producer), & Gjestvang, L. (Director). (2007). 20 Straws:
Growing up gay [DVD]. Columbus, OH. (Available from www.videooutreach.org)
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