Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The pursuit of a gender‐just language classroom

2023; Wiley; Volume: 107; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/modl.12874

1540-4781

Fernando G Lesniak,

Gender Studies in Language

I am a middle- and high-school Spanish teacher in a doctoral program trying to make the world more trans inclusive, starting with my very own classroom. Sometimes it feels like I am an army of one. Knisely's piece gives me hope and direction. This article highlights the proven positive impact that gender-just pedagogies have in language classrooms. It also provides an ample array of examples that can help support a language classroom that addresses trans diversity. I would like to share my perspective both as a language educator who is actively trying to create a more inclusive language classroom and an academic who is starting to conduct research in this topic. I have had the opportunity to review theory on social justice, discuss transgender issues with colleagues and students, and work alongside my middle-school colleagues to create curricular reforms regarding language inclusivity. Having found myself a bit lost on more than one occasion, I would like to illustrate how this article helped me get a deeper understanding of gender-just pedagogies in language classrooms and how it opened my mind to move further away from a trinary pronoun system (that I originally thought was sufficient) and reflect on the diversity of gender-nonconforming individuals. My desire to start advocating for a trans-inclusive language classroom happened at the end of the 2020−2021 academic year. My sixth-grade Spanish students needed to work on a comprehensive project in which they would design and describe a fictional character they made up. This description would use many vocabulary terms, including the use of numbers, colors, parts of the body, and clothing, among others. Students would also have to show proficiency in gender and number agreement when using articles and adjectives. Following the curriculum that I had always used, I had taught my students basic (and binary) language to describe gender (e.g., "los chicos altos [the tall boys]," "las chicas altas [the tall girls]"). Most students started their task, but one student showed discontent. She said that the fact that her character, who identified as gender neutral, had no option but using the "de facto" masculine pronoun was simply not fair. I am not proud to admit it, but I first tried to convince her to choose either masculine or female gender and move on; however, she stood her ground. At that moment, I felt that it was only right to validate her choice. After all, the same battle for gender-just language was being fought in many other places. I then suggested that the student could use the gender-neutral pronoun "elle," the one that I had heard about most often, and she completed her project. We also checked the Real Academia de la Lengua Española [The Royal Academy of Spanish Language] Twitter account. The posts we reviewed were evidence of the institution's opposition to the use of any gender-neutral language and insistence that the use of the "de facto" masculine pronoun is Spanish gender neutral (Real Academia de la Lengua Española, 2020). After listening and reviewing the facts, students discussed how unfair they thought the Spanish language was for not having an option for gender nonbinary, nonconforming individuals. Furthermore, they could not understand how an institution could decide that a whole group of people will not be fairly represented in the language they speak. I was proudly listening to my sixth-grade students eloquently discuss this issue, so connected to people's fundamental rights. They were more willing to advocate for transgender rights than I could imagine. Unwittingly, my students transformed the grammatical curriculum of my class, opening up new possibilities, even for beginning language learners in middle school. They made me reflect on my own practices and challenged my instructional approach to dealing with gender issues in my classroom. I realized that I never really saw the necessity to teach until a student asked for it. I could not help but think about how many students might have felt that they were not represented in my classroom or in my lessons. Knisely (2022b) discussed the aims of gender-just pedagogies, mentioning an approach that "question[s] all forms of normativity, (…) raise[s] awareness of LGBTQ+ lives, (…) focus[es] on fostering respectful engagement with disparate worldviews, and (…) leave[s] room for fluidity, flexibility, and complexity" (p. 166). I think that critical discussions on trans issues are an essential component in language classrooms. At the end of this class, one of my students came to my desk and asked me, "one of my friends from fifth grade who uses 'they'/'them' pronouns wants to take Spanish, how will they feel safe in a classroom where they can't use their pronoun because it is not accepted?" This question was the catalyst on a journey to trying to create trans-inclusive classrooms in our district, but we came to the realization that we did not know exactly where to start. As educators, we have learned a lot about social justice in language classrooms, but a focus on trans social justice has been almost nonexistent. Knisely's work, and the ideas portrayed in this article, provide solid ground for that much-needed change in language classroom to begin. After the experience shared with my sixth-grade Spanish class, our school Spanish team felt the necessity of bringing together the Spanish language instructors of the school district to start bringing forward some change. This was the first step in the process. As language educators and advocates for all our students, the entire team was up for the challenge. It was the common agreement that it would be positive to create a better environment for our trans and gender-nonconforming students. There was, however, some hesitation regarding the potential repercussions that introducing a gender-inclusive language model might have on our students. Some of the worries were: How complicated would it be for students to adapt to a new set of pronouns, would it negatively impact the students' progression, or would it make it more difficult for the students to understand gender and number agreement? It is important to note that this sense of hesitation is unfounded, as there is no research to back up these claims. A good compromise, we believed, was to introduce the option of a gender-neutral pronoun across the district. At the end, our idea to introduce a gender-inclusive pronoun became an afterthought. It seemed like a good idea, an option, but in the end, I had trouble getting traction among colleagues for a commitment to make this first baby step. For example, critical discussions on why gender inclusivity was never thought in class, the number of examples that included inclusive language was minimal, and our students who identified as trans or nonbinary struggled with understanding the complexity of gender-neutral and inclusive language in Spanish. It seemed as if the addition of a gender-inclusive pronoun simply became a new vocabulary word. On more than one occasion, we met as a team to reevaluate the new additions to the curriculum, and we discussed how effective our approach was. We understood that, as a department, we were not doing enough, but at least we were not ignoring the problem. This was just a little win, because our students at the district level would all learn that there was an option for gender-nonconforming students if they chose to use it. The biggest hesitation to deal with was how to start teaching gender-inclusive pronouns in Spanish, because there was no gender-inclusive curriculum available. The main concern was thinking how complicated it might be for students to deal with options that diverge from the binary system. During our conversations, we reviewed current practices. The conclusion was just to introduce the option of the gender-neutral pronoun "elle." We created new charts for pronouns, and it was introduced as a pronoun by every Spanish teacher in the district. Having this option was just the bare minimum, and I agree with Knisely that the introduction of a trinary system just makes "linguacultural lives more livable for some" (p. 612, this issue). Knisely's response to the insufficiency presented by trinary structures definitely keeps up with the solutions Spanish speakers are finding. This article offers the option of the gender markers "–e," "–x," and the use of genderless nouns. Corpus studies have tracked the history of diverse attempts at a more inclusive Spanish language (Bonnin & Coronel, 2021; Kalinowski, 2020; Linares, 2019; Slemp, 2020), with recent findings supporting the fact that the most common gender-inclusive markers currently used by Spanish speakers are "–e," or "–x." Data from an unpublished study I conducted in 2022 support Knisely's options but also shed light onto the controversies that currently surround gender-neutral and gender-inclusive language in Spanish. These studies conclude that the use of different gender markers is still debated among Spanish speakers, even the ones who have already accepted that gender neutrality should be accepted. Even though Spanish speakers are becoming more receptive to the use of both gender-inclusive markers "–e," and "–x," the use of the latter still generates more controversy. The study I conducted also found that Spanish speakers finding workarounds to avoid using gender is becoming more prevalent, using genderless collective nouns like "gente [people]," "amistades [friends]," or "banda [gang]" when referring to a group of people. It is evident that just the desire to create a more inclusive classroom is not enough. Our goal was to create an environment in which students who identified as gender nonbinary would be included, heard, valued, and made to feel that they can be their authentic selves. Our department had the best intentions, but in the end, it was just one department. The lack of support from the entire school, along with the lack of experience from the Spanish department were potentially some of the biggest obstacles to accomplishing our goal. There is also a lack of material to support this change; as Moore mentions in his comment to Knisely's piece, teachers cannot rely on commercially available textbooks and materials. We came to the realization fairly quickly that our idea of creating a more inclusive language classroom had been reduced to only the use of a gender-neutral or gender-inclusive pronoun, without thinking about the cultural and social implication of trans inclusivity. Knisely gives us a framework of gender-just pedagogies, and what this set of pedagogies aims to do. Knisely challenges us to explore with our students relevant and real-world LGBTQ+ issues, to engage in critical discussions that challenge cisgender normativity and to tie queer and trans content to curriculum and lesson goals. In our ever-changing educational world, the need for a framework that adapts to the many identities that exist is of utmost importance. Knisely's groundbreaking work focuses on equitable and principled practices that challenge language teaching. In 2022, Knisely introduced the gender-just language project. This model, as highlighted in this article, helps to acknowledge that using a curriculum that affirms trans and queer inquiry-based pedagogies have nothing but positive outcomes (Knisely, 2022a). The fact that this model suggests that students can become more critical users of the language they are learning simply opens doors. The idea of creating a space in the language classroom to bring forth exploration with students, staying current with issues that are happening in the world, and an opportunity to revamp the curriculum with each group according to their particular needs would make each classroom its own world. The path toward a more inclusive language classroom is not an easy one, and one that should not be taken alone. However, embarking on such a task with a group of teachers did not help our district develop the momentum needed for a real change to happen. Our hesitation to explore the realm of trans-just pedagogies, and settling on minimal changes such as pronouns became a barrier instead of gaining the liberation our project should have had. Knisely's expertise made me rethink the process followed by our school district. First, it is important to make sure that we do not box ourselves into only using gender-neutral pronouns. While this is an important aspect when it comes to language, it should not become only part of a pronoun lesson, but it should be part of every unit, and a linguistic practice everyone in the gender-just language class should adopt. Also, there should be different options for pronoun use; after all, there is not an established gender-neutral pronoun(s) in the Spanish language. The fight for the adoption of gender-neutral language is an ongoing movement, and our students should be part of this movement too. Creating opportunities to have student-led discussions on the topic would allow them to also have a voice in this matter, and their thoughts will become a valuable part of the classroom environment and attitudes toward gender inclusivity. Knisely's conclusion exhorts language instructors to embrace gender-just pedagogies. A classroom that ignores trans people restricts students in too many ways. For example, it limits nonbinary students' self-expression and sense of belonging, leading to potential academic failure. For all other students, it limits their access to resources and prevents them from understanding diversity, and it takes away the opportunity for them to challenge the status quo. The resistance, the fight for inclusion, and calls to action have been part of histories across the world and, currently, they are part of our everyday classrooms. Languages are not static, and history has shown us that linguistic changes are imminent. As language teachers, it is time to decide the type of instructors we want to be. Do we want to be agents of restriction that oppose the nature of language, or do we want to embrace the change that will promote equity and social justice for every single student in our classroom?