Blog Post #3
For my critical summary assignment, I chose to research Jen Gilbert and her theories about sexuality in the classroom. The main article I chose to critique was about a project that she was a part of called the “beyond bullying project”. This project was a great conversation starter about how sexuality is currently being viewed and discussed in classrooms, and steps we can take to reshape the way we thing and talk about sexuality in the classroom.
Jen Gilbert teaches education at York University. She is also very passionate about sexuality education, youth studies, and sexuality in education. (York university). Gilbert was one of the affiliates of The Beyond Bullying Project, which, in an article titled beyond bullying, by Jessica Fields; et al, is described as a project that aims to reframe how educational institutes view and support students who identify as LGBTQ. The article states that: “communities and schools…focus – almost exclusively – on preventing anti-LGBTQ bullying. Schools aim to minimize the risk of depression and suicide among LGBTQ youth” (fields, et al. 81). Although the creators of this project believe that this prevention is extremely important, they also “worry that framing conversations about LGBTQ sexuality as a problem of bullying narrowly links LGBTQ sexuality to risk and danger” (fields, et al. 81). To combat this victimizing of LGBTQ students in schools, this group of four: Jessica Fields, Laura Mamo, Jen Gilbert, and Nancy Lesko decided to create the beyond bullying project, in which they set up a booth in schools and encouraged students and faculty to share stories about LGBTQ sexuality. These stories could be “big and important or silly, ordinary or even boring; it could be true, we said, but it did not have to be. Any story about LGBTQ sexuality was welcome, and no one from the school would hear their story or know what story was told” (80). This project’s goal was to normalize the discussion of aspects of LGBTQ sexuality such as breakups, families, and friendships; aspects that go beyond victimization and bullying, which are not often the aspects that are brought up in schools. The goal of this project was to inspire conversations about LGBTQ sexualities that are more positive in nature, and “to provoke new ways of understanding, allowing, and imagining sexualities to flourish in our schools” (83).
My next step going forward is to find two more articles that discuss how different sexualities are integrated into the classroom and then compare the similarities and differences in these two articles to the perspectives and theories that are in the main article that I chose to critique.
Fields, Jessica, et al. “Beyond Bullying.” Contexts, vol. 13, no. 4, 2014, pp. 80–83.
Hey Stephanie, I think its really cool how we are both writing about the same topic and person but chose kind of two different perspectives, I might look into a few of the articles you mentioned in your blog! I chose to write about sexuality in the classroom, and less about the bullying part and based it more on her book Sexuality in School, the whole book seems like a book Id like to fully read at some point , Id maybe check it out if you need a few more parts to write about especially chapter 5, its really interesting to see how both the bullying in the LGBTQ aspect of sexuality is apart of the big picture though for sure.
This article sounds very interesting, I agree that it is a very important topic to talk about in the classroom, one that is not talked about enough and can lead to some controversy so good for you for choosing this topic. I would love to learn more about the “beyond bullying project” it seems like it would be substantial and necessary project that could help a lot of people.