7: Promoting Queer Language Pedagogy

In this chapter, I explored how queer language teachers promote queer language pedagogy through exercising their agency in their language classrooms. I asked the question, “How do queer language teachers exercise their authority and autonomy to make their language teaching practices gender-inclusive”? To answer this, data were gathered from interviews and classroom observations of queer language teachers. Based on the data, queer language teachers exercised their agency by establishing clear guidelines for a respectful learning environment, creating a gender-inclusive classroom, creating engaging and tailored activities for students, and promoting critical thinking on social issues. Thus, queer language teachers create a respectful classroom environment by outlining clear guidelines to promote inclusivity and support. They use all gender-inclusive role-playing activities to challenge discrimination against queer people and encourage collaboration. Although these queer teachers also faced challenges, we can say that the activities they employed in their language classrooms demonstrate their ability to shape a more gender-inclusive and socially aware queer language pedagogy. Also defined in this chapter, queer teacher agency is the ability and autonomy of queer language teachers to express their identities and integrate these identities into their teaching practices, particularly in promoting queer language pedagogy. Such queer teacher agency is a critical component in challenging and reshaping normative systems within language pedagogy to create a more inclusive atmosphere for all students, especially those who share similar identities with their teachers.