Connections Quarterly Summer 2019 - Gender | Page 10

L E SSON S FR O M A GE NDE R S T UD I ES C L AS S R O O M Continued from page 7 3. We want to feel represented in the curriculum. There should be more inclusive classes for students of color, the LGBTQ+, and other minority students including reli- gious minorities in our community (and not just electives). 4. We want more teachers of differ- ent backgrounds including race, class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation. Diversity should not just be in the stu- dent body and curriculum, but also in the teachers who teach us every day. 5. We want to feel safe to express our experiences with the community. Our community is supposed to be a safe space, but many people don’t feel com- fortable enough to share their true experi- ences due to fear of backlash and ridicule from not just their peers, but also adults. 6. Affinity groups should not be the fall back for students. Students should not be forced to feel that affinity groups are the only safe space for them to be themselves. Our school can’t be for some and not for others. One year later, students contributing to this article 7 reiterate several specific needs outlined in the six-point plan. Representa- tion, accountability and voice all appear as prominent themes, but so do calls for radical love and empathy. In the stories that follow, we see what happens when students expe- rience both windows and mirrors in their classes, when we tell the truth about the past, when students feel responsible for cre- ating class content rather than just receiving it, and when community norms are not only established, but also collectively upheld. Taken together, these personal narratives of- fer important lessons and provide a glimpse into what I get to see every day. It is often messy and always imperfect, but the main lesson I have learned from the gender stud- ies classroom is that when we open spaces for students to bring their whole selves, they show up not just for themselves, but for others as well. Lesson #1: Give Students Mirrors Mikala Jones, SFS ‘18 Growing up as a Black biracial woman in predominantly white spaces, I often felt isolated from my peers. I was unsure of myself and where I belonged because I let 7. I did not ask the students who co-authored this article to write on a specific, pre-determined topic. Rather, they volun- teered to write on what they wanted to write about – what resonated with them, what they found most salient. For me, this is an exercise of feminist pedagogy in and of itself, and how we as educators can use feminist ethic in any setting or task. It does not mean that my voice as a teacher is absent or that I have wholly removed myself from the process or power dynamics (since, in the end, I did prompt, piece together and edit the article). Nevertheless, the voices and ideas present in this article are the students’, and I have shaped how I chose to write based on their ideas, rather than the other way around. Page 8 Summer 2019 CSEE Connections