Foundations: Genders and Sexualities in Ed

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Open to Graduate and PACE students; Online Synchronous course

This course will introduce students to how gender, gender identity, and sexuality have shaped educational experiences in the U. S., balancing the innovative and creative work done by students and school professionals with the institutional obstacles faced by diverse genders and sexualities. We will explore the enduring forms of sexism experienced by women, including how sexism and transphobia continue to pose challenges for all genders. In addition, course readings will analyze how sexual violence, omission of sexual health information, and sexual harassment create disproportionate burdens for diverse women, including intersectional complexities related to race, ethnicity, gender identity, and disability, among other issues. Readings will also explore how boys and young men face obstacles in schools, also related to intersectional differences as well as limited socially-sanctioned understandings of masculinity. In addition, we will examine the forms of exclusion and resiliency that structured school-based life for LGBTQI2SA+ students and for all students who have worked to help build sexuality-related knowledges. Readings will combine contemporary social science literature, historical analyses, and theoretical engagement with the core themes of the class. This is a seminar-style graduate class so it is crucial that students keep up with readings and be actively engaged in discussion. We will supplement our synchronous time together online (that is, we do meet face-to-face on Teams) with asynchronous writing assignments and conversations on Blackboard Discussion Board. In addition to regular shorter writing assignments, students will complete a seminar paper (about 10 pages in length) drawing on class readings, hopefully built upon previous Discussion Board posts.

Learn about some of the foundational texts in the study of genders and sexualities in education Understand the links and disconnects between historical issues related to genders and sexualities in education and contemporary issues related to genders and sexualities in education Be able to read and write using critical analysis of texts Be able to engage in active, thoughtful discussion understanding the texts also moving into critical analysis