The Latest from VEA

By Kristien Zenkov, Lin Rudder, Jeff Keller, and Meagan Call-Cummings

It’s hard for me to explain to people who aren’t teachers how skilled I am at this, how much training I’ve had, and how I take this so seriously. They seem to think that because they went to high school, they know what’s going on, and they can weigh in and question me – not only for their child, but for all children. There is not that respect towards people in education. 

-Bobbi, high school teacher

Let’s talk. No, really, let’s TALK: let’s be honest. Let’s talk about schools, let’s talk to teachers and young people about schools. And, better yet, let’s listen to teachers and young people about what’s working, what’s not, and what might work in today’s classrooms and school buildings.

Such conversations are the focus of the upcoming book, Talking Equity in Polarized Times: Stories and Strategies from Teachers and Students, by Meagan Call-Cummings, Lin Rudder, Kristien Zenkov, and Jeff Keller (Virginia’s 2024 Teacher of the Year). The authors interviewed more than 30 teachers across the United States for their views on what it is like to teach during a time when political actors seem particularly interested in our schools. Each of the 10 chapters focuses on a different hot-button issue in education – including race and racism, immigration, diversity, and LGBTQIA+ advocacy. Structured as an oral history, the book centers real teachers’ stories, struggles, and honest reflections to arrive at one resounding conclusion: many things in our world have changed the last few years, but teachers continue to do their best to put students first, even when that proves difficult, and the best thing we can do for education right now is listen to teachers.

The “LGBTQIA+ Advocacy” chapter in Talking Equity in Polarized Times highlights teachers who are trying to serve their students while simultaneously navigating these tensions. The past few years have seen a rash of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and in Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration advanced “model” school board policies rolling back protections for transgender students throughout the Commonwealth.

We would be remiss if we did not note that in the midst of writing this chapter, news broke nationally about the death of a nonbinary student, Nex Benedict, in Owassa, Oklahoma. At the time of our writing, the exact cause of Nex’s death remains under investigation. What is clear, however, is that Oklahoma’s newly adopted policy for bathroom use by transgender students forced Nex into a situation that resulted in bullying and in a physical altercation in a girl’s bathroom. It is not hyperbole to say that – for some students – the issues discussed in this chapter are matters of life and death.

Teacher Experiences

The 30 teachers interviewed for this book highlight again and again that every decision they make is in service of nurturing children in their care. Teachers’ own words in the chapters capture the themes of navigating restricted content, detrimental policies, and giving students a safe space. And students’ perspectives shared in the book highlight how these issues are rarely controversial for most youth.

I think it demonstrates that there is a mindset that teachers should not be trusted as professionals – that teachers are indoctrinating students. I mean, so many teachers just care so deeply about their students, and to have anyone suggest that we don’t have the best interests of students in mind when we make these choices, it’s just insulting and hurtful. 

As a result of these laws and parental outcry, many teachers are also changing their instruction in order to protect themselves, including Sabrina, an elementary school teacher who also identifies as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community:

There’s this most amazing children’s book. It’s called And Tango Makes Three. It’s a true story about a penguin family at the Central Park Zoo. There were two male penguins that were together during every mating season, and the zookeeper noticed, and whenever the eggs were laid, and the penguin moms and dads would share the egg back and forth, these two penguins would use a rock. But then, one year, a penguin mom and dad gave birth to twins. So, I guess penguins don’t do well with twins, so they took one of the eggs and gave it to this male couple. They would do the back and forth thing, and they hatched this baby penguin named Tango, and they lived – silly as it is – happily ever after.  But the thing is, I’m not reading that book in here.

This does not mean Sabrina is ignoring the need for all of her students to be welcomed and affirmed. Instead, she is having to work harder to find ways around the controversy:

So, I do feel restricted when it comes to sharing books. But I try to work around it in other ways, to focus on books that talk about inclusivity, being proud of who you are and accepting who you are.

Detrimental Policies

Many teachers spoke about districts adopting policies that limited their ability to affirm students’ identities – including Heather, a science teacher:

We have a policy that specifically says we are not allowed to ask students their pronouns. I’m really struggling with that right now. I mean, all the research shows that using a student’s preferred pronouns is one of the easiest ways to create an inclusive and more welcoming environment. It goes right up there with using their correct names – the names they want to be used. 

Heather witnessed a student being addressed by a different pronoun than Heather had been using. She violated the rule and decided to directly ask the student their pronouns:

It’s that balance between how do I protect myself and how do I protect this kid? I didn’t have to use the student’s pronouns. But I wanted to address it and do it in a way that wasn’t going to feel weird or intrusive to the student. I mean, technically what I did wasn’t right. Which is weird because I’m typically a rule follower. In the world of things to be thinking about, I wish this was one thing I didn’t have to.

When referencing a policy in her district that required schools to share with parents whenever a student requested to be identified by a different pronoun than what appeared on their birth certificate, Bobbi, a high English school teacher, noted how difficult it can be to meld expected policy with doing what is best for students:

This idea that we should be required to out students to parents… I am gay, and if my teachers had outed me to my family that would have been devastating. So I can’t imagine the idea that I would potentially put a student in danger because their family is not accepting of who they are. Or worse, that we could push a student to suicide because we make a very stressful situation worse.

Another teacher we spoke with, who asked to remain anonymous, echoed Bobbi’s sentiments: “I think that outing anyone is not the job of a teacher. It’s the student who is going to come forward when they are ready, and I don’t think we should be outing anyone.”

Giving Students a Safe Space

While external policies are typically outside of the teacher’s control, many of the teachers illustrated how they used their classrooms to create safe spaces for all students. Amy described how she used writing prompts to give students a voice:

I try to be sure my students know my classroom is a safe space. Whatever I have to do to help them navigate, I’m going to do. A lot of the work they do in my class is writing, so I try to have open prompts but also allow students to explore challenging issues in their lives. So, I’ll ask questions like, “My life would be so much easier if…” and then they get to write about that for 10 minutes. Or “One thing I wish adults knew is…” and they go from there. They never have to write on the prompt as long as they’re writing. They’ll say, “I’m not going to write on the prompt today. I just need to vent.”

Reese, a mentor teacher in a private elementary school, echoed Amy, demonstrating how she created classroom activities and structures that allowed students to feel seen:

We read. We read the book Julian and the Wedding, by Jessica Love. The students love the pictures. It’s two women getting married, and it pushes back on all these gender stereotypes in the context of weddings. So, Julian is a flower girl. Can boys be flower girls? We have this whole conversation about that. And then the two women getting married. And again, I don’t know how certain parents will handle this, but the most important thing is that we are having the conversation about who can get married. Well, lots of people can get married. What is love? It’s complex and beautiful, in all these different ways. It felt like what should be happening in every classroom. and it makes me sad that it’s not.

Sabrina, the elementary school teacher who identifies with the LGBTQIA+ community, emphasized that the language teachers use is crucial for students feeling included. She shared a letter she received from a former student who thanked her for being authentic and helping her feel comfortable and safe. Sabrina used this event to illustrate how “small tweaks” in the language teachers use can mean a lot to students – even in first or second grade.

We do have an impact in first or second grade. You know, in first or second grade, they don’t know if they’re gay or not. They may have never heard the word transgender, or you know, or non-binary, but soon they will, and there’s going to come a time when those kids are old enough to identify with a certain group, and often it comes in middle and high school. 

Student Perspectives

Student perspectives on these issues are also featured prominently in the book. The Youth Research Council was formed in 2021 to bring together high school students in Northern Virginia to conduct research on topics important to them and related to education and education policy. When asked about her perspective on LGBTQIA+ inclusivity in schools within the Youth Research Council, recent high school graduate Diana shared that while questions around students who identified as LGBTQIA+ might have been an issue when she was younger, this wasn’t the case today. Such issues were only being politicized in the media:

Honestly, the whole thing with trans kids using the bathroom, it’s not even a big deal at my school. I mean, maybe before COVID it was more of an issue. Like, people might have been like, ‘Is that a boy or a girl,’ or whatever, but now, it’s just more normalized.

For Diana, that minority of vocal parent groups and divisive political rhetoric didn’t affect her everyday school experience.

Excerpted from Talking Equity in Polarized Times: Stories and Strategies from Teachers and Students, to be published this fall by Routledge/The Taylor & Francis Group.

Jeff Keller, a member of the Winchester Education Association, is a history teacher at John Handley High School and the 2024 Virginia Teacher of the Year. Kristien Zenkov is Professor of Education at George Mason University and the author and editor of more than 150 articles and book chapters and nine books. Meagan Call-Cummings is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education and co-founder of the Youth Research Council, which brings together Virginia high school students annually to conduct youth-led, policy-relevant research. Lin Rudder is a National Board Certified Teacher in Loudoun County where, in addition to teaching high school English, she serves as her school’s Equity Lead and Writing Center Co-Director.