Beyond Pronouns: The Case for Gender-Expansive and Democratizing Practice in Teacher Education

Abstract

Many teacher education programs are committed to social justice. This commentary argues that gender-expansive education—teaching that opens up, democratizes, and complicates our understandings of gender, gender identity, and gendered embodiment in our classrooms in ways that make space for all kinds of students—must be meaningfully, intersectionally included in teacher education that aims to promote equity, democracy, and freedom through schooling. We suggest ways that teacher education programs can leverage many of the critical skills and dispositions already cultivated in social justice education to integrate gender-expansive perspectives throughout their curriculum.