Book: Queering the English Language Classroom
Chapter: What is Queering and Why Should We All Do It?
Blurb:
Chapter one provides a practitioner-friendly introduction to queer theory in the fields of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and applied linguistics. It then establishes the need to queer the English language classroom in a way that creates an educational space that is inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) students. This chapter concludes by operationalizing the term ‘queer’ as a verb. This definitional work is geared towards providing educators with a tool-for-thought to queer their practice by creating classroom spaces that engage with dominant social discourses in such a way that the discursive construction of all identities is made salient for students. Moreover, this work allows educators to help students problematize and resist these discourses by making space for non-heteronormative sexual identities (viz., queer inquiry).