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[lambert-pln-lgbtqplus]

Survey!!

Representation is important so I've created a survey to quantify how well people feel represented in schools. Whether it be sexuality, gender, race, class, or creed, I want to know how well people feel they have been represented in their school. Follow link below to go to the survey!

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DBRG3G_i70OwrgDyV_R4_2mXjXRaXP1CiobImLho7JJUOFpGMjZQVUdCTzZKNDgzQUpMWjkwQTlaTy4u

[lambert-pln-lgbtqplus]

Supporting LGBTQ-Inclusive Teaching

In this journal, the author, Sabia Prescott, talks about the importance of language and inclusiveness when discussing the LGBTQ+ community.

In the article Why Queer Inclusion? she discusses how the LGBTQ+ community is pushed to the edges in schools and is often thought of as a no man's land when talking to administration. She says that "only one in five students are taught positive representations of LGBTQ+ people, events, and history"

https://diigo.com/0n40gp

https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/stable/resrep34437.4?refreqid=excelsior%3Af4835d3df422b4563110a04469d2e2b1&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

In another article in this same journal, what are Inclusive Professional Learning Materials, Prescott talks more about the learning environments we can create for the LGBTQ+ students to feel safer and more represented. She gives the example of simply changing the language we use. By moving from gendered introductions, such as "ladies and gentlemen", and towards introductions like "folks" or "everyone", we can create an area where students who don't conform to the gender binary don't feel out of place.

https://diigo.com/0n40ld

https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/stable/resrep34437.5?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Full journal can be found here

https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/stable/resrep34437

https://diigo.com/0n40mj

[lambert-pln-lgbtqplus]

Fight for Your Right: Censorship, Selection, and LGBTQ Literature

In this article, the authors, Jen Scott Curwood, Megan Schliesman, and Kathleen T. Horning, talk about how the English curriculum hasn't changed in a decade (this article was posted in 2008) and how the LGBTQ+ students are suffering because they are not being taught literature by authors of their same creed.

https://diigo.com/0n3zx8

https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/stable/40503259?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

[digginadyke]

Day 2: A Brief History Of Personal Pronouns and Gender-Neutral Old English

(A/N: Before I begin I would like to apologize for the English-centricity of this post - there is infinite material to cover in terms of other languages and I could go into detail about at least my first language, Russian, but I found that the research took twice as long and I did not have the time or energy to keep it up after the first hour brought me barely half of what I needed for just the basics of one section.)

What are pronouns?

Before I can start an educational post, I need to get my definitions out of the way, even if that means going back to basic linguistics.

A pronoun is any word that stands in place of a noun. Some of the most common pronouns are she/her/hers/herself, he/him/his/himself, they/them/their/themself, they/them/theirs/themselves, it/its/itself, we/us/our/ourselves, and you/your/yours/yourself.

(If that seems like a lot, that’s just because of the conjugations in the English language. You don’t need to worry about that.)

However, there are tons of pronouns that I haven’t mentioned!

One type of pronoun sets, which includes xe/xir/xirself and fae/fem/faer/faerself are called neopronouns; they were used throughout history but never caught on.

Another type of pronoun sets like spook/spooks/spookself, which the user creates for themselves, are called xenopronouns.

Hell, even words like “bro” and “dude” can be considered pronouns if they stand in place of a noun. Language is something we as humans define for ourselves, any pronoun set someone uses is valid and does not dictate their gender.

You/Thou; The History Of Plural Pronouns

Before we can go into an analysis of neopronouns, however, we have to confront the dreaded question; isn’t they/them plural?

The answer is... it depends on how it’s used. They/them pronouns can refer to more than one person, but they don’t always, and they don’t usually!

And in fact, they/them is not the only pronoun set that started as a plural set; you used to be plural as well!

In Early Modern English (think the 1600s, Shakespearean era) thou was the informal and singular version of you, while you was only used to social superiors and large groups. Slowly, this use of thou/you in English faded out as more and more people used you in common speech and thou became archaic and rude.  (x) (x) (x)

However, many languages (such as Spanish, French, and Russian) still use this system.

History of The Word “Man”

Before it became the strictly masculine word that we see it as today, the word “man” (or mann as it was more often written as back then) actually referred to any adult human. It wasn’t until a little less than a thousand years ago, in the 1300s, when it made its final transformation.

Before the word man meant what it does now, the word “wer”, “weyr”, or “wǣpmann” served the same purpose - you can see the remnants of it today in the word “werewolf”, which is, in most medias, a half-human half-wolf creature.

The word woman, on the other hand, was preceded by the term “wif” or “wīfmann”. This word has now evolved into the word “wife” and is pronounced the same way.

(x) (x) (x)

History of The Word “Girl”

Although the actual etymological origins of the word “girl” are quite unclear, we do know that the word was used as a gender-neutral term for any young child.

It first started appearing in the 13th century, typically with another qualifier; what we would call girls now were called ‘gay girls’ and what we would call boys now were called ‘knave girls’ (or more accurately gay/knave gyrls or gay/knave gerles).

The early 1500s saw a shift into the use of girl as a gendered word and by the 1550s the term got pretty much solidified as gendered; John Heywood wrote in 1546, “The boy thy husbande, and thou the gyrle his wyfe.” (x)

(x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

History of Neo-pronouns

Now neopronouns are not a new invention - in fact, they are defined as being pronouns that simply fell out of style.

Historian and teacher at the University of Illinois Dennis Baker spent years studying ‘unusual’ pronouns and has found mentions of neopronouns from far further back then you’d expect - the earliest use he’s seen is of e/em/es pronouns from 1841. Others he’s seen include zie/zem/zir and hir/hirs/herself, the latter of which had reportedly been used for 25 consecutive years - it was no short-lived trend. (x)

Ae/aer/aerself pronouns were first recorded in a scifi book from the 1920s, thon/thons/thonself in 1858, and co/cos/coself in the 1970s. (x)

And although these are too old to be considered neopronouns, ou/ous/ouself and ha/he/heo have been used since the 1300s and have evolved as time has passed (the latter slowly becoming he/him/his/his-self). (x)

The pronoun thon, short for that one, appeared in the Marriam-Webster Dictionary from 1934-1961. (x)

Here is another great article that goes further into detail about all of this. (x)

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[lambert-pln-lgbtqplus]

Understanding LGBTQ+ students

ABSTRACT

Evidence from a meta-analysis suggested that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth experience elevated levels of victimization in schools as compared to their heterosexual peers, and that victimization was shown to be persistent and lasting, indicating that school environments are hostile. These findings point to the need to better understand youths’ own efforts in becoming more aware and engaged in impacting systemic inequities. Photovoice and mobile interviewing, two relatively novel qualitative methodologies in the field of LGBTQ research, are methodologies that involve the participants by 1) taking photos of interest as a means of critical discussion, and 2) moving alongside the researcher in a participant-chosen area and have critical discussions highlighted by the visual cues. The goal of this paper is to highlight ways of listening to opinions of LGBTQ youth that are contextualized in the environments in which they are victimized.

https://diigo.com/0n3zlj

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/02673843.2018.1554499?needAccess=true

[notlikeotheravians]

I didn’t know how important representation was until I read a book about a transgender character for the first time, I remember finishing it sitting outside during a break in school and tearing up because I actually felt like I wasn’t really alone and I just felt, like I don’t know, seen. Like that was such a validating moment actually having that like I genuinely think all kids of minority groups especially those who feel unrepresented need representation like this, like it was just so great to have that in a book- a piece of media! Someone just like me! Like I felt normal for once, that was SUCH an important moment for me in accepting my identity, why can’t everyone have this???

[lambert-pln-lgbtqplus]

It is important for students to feel represented in literature and in the education, they are receiving. This isn't just limited to LGBTQ+ students but also black students, Asian students, native students, ADD/ADHD students, deaf students, etc. Without this representation, and the feeling of being seen, students can start to drift away from peers and education, and they begin to feel othered. Like they don't fit in with the popular narrative.