Inqueeries celebrates ten years of LGBTQ education

September 6, 2012

By Fred Michah Rynor

Inqueeries About Education, a unique and groundbreaking course in LGBTQ educational practices, celebrates its tenth year at OISE with The Reunion Conference; Ten Years of Anti-Homophobia Work at OISE on September 15.

As well as discussing the latest in sexual minority education, the conference is busy inviting grads to take part in the celebration.

Professor Tara Goldstein of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning was the creator of this elective course in 2001.

"So far, 172 students have graduated and we want them to come back, celebrate and discuss the impact of this course over the last decade," she says with pride. "We want to know what they've done with their education and how they've impacted on the queer community."

Alumni include Jeffrey White who now teaches at the Triangle Program for lgbtq kids and Anand Mahadevan who is a published author.

Goldstein says OISE has provided a welcoming space for people to engage in lgbtq academic study and she's "excited to think that we have accomplished so much. Other schools throughout North America and abroad look to us as a template and we now have a critical mass of professors available to supervise graduate students."

The Inqueeries course is a 36-hour elective in the Initial Teacher Education Program which sees numerous alumni returning to conduct graduate research on themes of homophobia in schools and lgbtq academic outreach.

Goldstein says despite the many successes, there are still challenges for lgbtq teachers and their allies in the teaching community. "Our grads still wonder if they should come out and openly support lgbtq courses and initiatives. Many remain marginalized in their classrooms, especially in the first years of their teaching careers and they worry about how their identity could negatively impact on their jobs."

The Inqueeries Conference is supported by OISE Student Services, the Student Teachers' Union and the U of T Sexual and Gender Diversity Office.

"The course has been successful because OISE supports our work and colleagues are eager to teach it," says Goldstein.

Other elective courses include Gender Equity in Schools and Classrooms; Youth, Popular Culture and Schooling and Managing Conflict in Classrooms and the School Workplace.

To register for the conference contact tenyearsinqueeries@utoronto.ca