Full Description
Dear Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, And Transgender Teacher: Letters Of Advice To Help You Find Your Way is full of the voices of queer educators and calls for educational leaders to be allies in their social justice leadership roles. Queer professionals write personal letters to junior queer colleagues answering the general prompt, 'What have you learned as a queer educator that you believe is essential to the success of current or future gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered educators?' The responses are thoughtful, powerful, poignant, and direct.
The collection of letters includes senior queer professionals, pre-service teachers who were currently in university courses at the very beginning of their careers, PreK-12 professionals at the beginning, middle, and end of their careers, administrators, counselors, teacher-educators at the university level, community educational leaders, lawyers, and heterosexual allies. There are early childhood teachers, elementary teachers, middle school and high school teachers representing nearly every content area, special education teachers, GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) leaders, school counselors, university professors of education across various fields of specialization, and activists. There are many races and ethnicities represented as well as eight countries. There are rural professionals and urban professionals. There are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered educators represented. This group of letters represents the intersectionality of queerness in all of its rich splendor.
Contents
Series Editor's Preface.
Introduction and Overall Framework.
Queer Leadership.
PART I: PRESERVICE CREDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
Introduction.
Studying to Become a Teacher in a Rural Area: The Obstacles That Get in the Way.
The First, Frightening Moment I Came Out: A Diary Entry on a Cold and Rainy Day.
Out in the Staffroom.
PART II: PRE?K-12 EDUCATORS.
Introduction.
We Are Family: The Role of GLBTIQS Activism in Human Rights Education.
Coming Out Again, and Again, and Again.
Transparency, Visibility, and Belonging.
Come Out, Come Out, Where You Are: Bringing LGBT Matters Out of the Early Childhood Education Closet.
From a School Leader of the 21st Century to a Child of the Past and Teachers of the Future.
On Being a Teacher First and Transgender Second.
Know and/of Established Rules, Practices, and Policies.
No More Schoolyard Bullies.
I Am Free.
Ten Years of Inqueeries.
Advice From Beyond the Closet.
That Gay Teacher.
The School Production and Queer Objects of Amusement.
Find Your Bottom Line.
To Come Out or Not to Come Out: Is it Worth the Risk?
Sleeping With a Mosquito.
Confidence Is the Key.
PART III: COUNSELORS AND MEDIATORS.
Introduction.
Be All of Whom You Are Early and Often.
A Toast for Amber and Lauren.
Coming Out With a Whisper.
PART IV: HIGHER EDUCATION.
Introduction.
Queer?Care, Oxygen Masks, and Other Insights Into Caring for Yourself and Your Queer Students.
Some Reflections on Working Around Anger and Change for New Queers.
Who You Are Matters.
Delusions of Mediocrity: Queer Teachers and Business as Usual.
Down the Rabbit Hole: Learning New Perspectives Around Diverse Genders, Sexes, and Sexualities.
Crossing the Pacific Ocean: A Queer Man of Color's Journey of Crossing Cultural Borders in Higher Education in the United States.
Be the Change You Wish to See in the World: Telling Our Stories With Integrity and Passion.
I Wish I Had Read the Faculty Manual: Tips for Queers in the System.
Queers Are Pioneers: Keeping an Open Mind About Education.
PART V: ALLIES, ACCOMPLICES, AND COCONSPIRATORS.
Introduction: Acts of Solidarity—Reflections of Ally Work Within Queer School Movements.
From Antiracist to Antiracist Racist, From Ally to Accomplice.
I Felt the Breeze as You Sprinted by Me.
Make Allies.
Answering the Call: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.
Conclusion.
About the Editors.
