Towards a more equitable ELT practice: Practicing queer inquiry in Thailand's university language classrooms

Abstract

Despite the sustained focus towards inclusive language teaching and queer pedagogy in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and language education in recent years, employing an inclusive pedagogical practice and having language teaching resources that respect the gender identity among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) students remain a challenge in many English language teaching (ELT) classrooms throughout the world. Employing an auto‐ethnomethodological approach, in this article the authors present their teaching practice experience in an attempt to queer their ELT classroom and provide a safe space for all gender identities in learning the language through a queer‐informed language teaching framework in an ELT classroom at a university in Thailand. It is the goal of this inquiry to add to the empirical evidence for gender inclusivity in an ELT classroom. Additionally, this study offers language practitioners consideration for having a queer‐informed classroom where there is diversity, inclusion, and engagement and where students are free to discuss their sexual identities, adding to the growing influence of gender perspective and inclusivity in heteronormative language education.