From July 4 to 5, UBC’s faculty of education is holding a two-day program called “Safe is Not Enough” for educators, which situates the newly recognized sexual orientation and gender policies in the BC education system.
More specifically, the program was created in acknowledgement of the recent Human Rights Code amendments to explicitly protect those marginalized by their gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as adherence to the Ministry of Education’s recent directive to include specific protections in school policies.
Run by Steve Mulligan, coordinator of the Teacher Education for All program, and Dr. Lori MacIntosh, professor of gender, race, sexuality and social justice, it provides BC educators with lesson plans on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) terminology and language, as well as ways to create inclusive classrooms.
Further information on inclusive sexual health education, trust building and initiatives to establish successful gender sexuality alliance clubs is also included.
In short, the program is about bridging the gap between educators' desire to support sexual and gender minorities students and their ability to do so.
“We have some research, which shows that 85 per cent of teachers support LGBTQ inclusive educations but only 37 per cent have actually participated in adding them in their school,” said Mulligan. “The number one reason that teachers give for not doing it and not talking about it is lack of training and lack of resources like lesson plans [and] books.”
Without training, educators could also unintentionally reinforce rigid gender binaries or create other negative SOGI classroom experiences.
“Dividing groups of boys and girls really sends a message to kids that there’s this big difference,” he said. “When you go to the gym to play soccer … somehow there’s this perception that the boys are going to be better at soccer than all the girls.”
Moving forward, Mulligan hopes to exceed the basic standard of ensuring safety for the LGBTQ community in schools by encouraging educators, students, administrators and staff to initiate conversations and celebrate these marginalized groups.
“Safety is a baseline — but we want more than that,” said Mulligan. “We want actual people educating other kids in the class so they understand it … and eventually they are celebrating and talking about gay authors or people throughout history ... That’s not really safety, that’s celebration, which is eventually where we want to get.”