Class removes blinders from the heterosexist eye.

School-age lesbians and gays have it rough, from deep dark closets to harassment and worse. Teachers and staff with unsorted baggage may unwittingly contribute. How can the programs that train educators help?

Part of the answer may be emerging from a new doctoral program in Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning at Lewis University IL. The program's social justice emphasis reflects the Catholic university's mission: to affirm "the equal dignity of every person and the promotion of personal and social responsibility."

Students Heather Hickman, Dan Johnson and others in the first doctoral cohort took the class Educational Leadership for a Pluralistic Society: Examining Diversity for Teaching and Learning led by guest faculty Dr. Gerardo Lopez of Indiana University. For six hours each Saturday they explored one ism a week, looking inward as well as out. "It was pretty intense," said Johnson, a high school assistant principal.

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Groups in the class did development projects on different isms. A team of four addressed attitudes toward people and lifestyles marginalized as LGBTIQ, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, inter-sexed and queer. "Heteronormativity is a major equity issue that needs more attention," said Hickman, a high school English teacher. She and Johnson reported at the AERA meeting in Chicago in April.

Othering

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb to other is to see or depict a group as fundamentally alien. Othering has to do with perceptions of one another. It can surface in overt discrimination, low expectations, stereotypes and marginalization. It can be individual or school-wide.