Generating a framework for gender and sexual diversity-inclusive STEM education

Generating a framework for gender and sexual diversity-inclusive STEM education

Authors: Gary William Wright, Cesar Delgado

Published in: Science Education (Feb 5, 2023) at https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21786

Abstract

Students who identify as LGBTQ continue to report feelings of being unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Access to a gender and sexual diversity (GSD)-inclusive curriculum and supportive teachers may positively improve the school climate for LGBTQ students, but these supports are often not included in STEM classrooms. One response is to ensure that STEM teachers are prepared to integrate GSD-inclusive STEM teaching into their classrooms. This review systematically analyzed the literature on supporting and affirming GSD in K-12 and higher education STEM education contexts. The 81 selected studies were qualitatively analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and epistemic network analysis, and the findings showed that GSD-inclusive STEM education literature coheres around six highly related constructs: Heteronormativity, Social Justice, Epistemic Knowledge of Science and Inquiry, Identity, Embodiment, and GSD language. Identifying these constructs, and the connections among them, led to the generation of an operational framework of GSD-inclusive STEM teaching that can inform and guide STEM teacher education programs and STEM teacher professional development to develop STEM educators' equity literacy around GSD to foster bias-free, equitable, inclusive STEM classrooms.

Inclusive Zines from the Queer Sex Ed Community Curriculum

The Queer Sex Ed Community Curriculum is an LGBTQ-led project that is developing inclusive, trauma-informed, and sex-positive resources for use with youth. Their resource library includes zines, posters, and training materials that you can implement in your classroom. Check out the awesome Sex Diversity in Nature Zine, as well as their zine on Deconstructing the Gender Binary.

Nature is Queer! Infographic

Check out this awesome infographic focused on diversity in the natural world created by Theo Bamberger, a graduate student working towards their Master’s of Education at the University of Washington. It highlights parallels between diverse expressions of gender and sexuality in nature with the diversity in human experiences.

Scientific American: "Beyond XX and XY"

A host of factors figure into whether someone’s biological sex appears female, male, or somewhere in between. This reference poster from Scientific American represents some elements in the spectra of gender (identity) and (biological) sex.

Though this poster uses the phrase "intersex conditions", we advise using "intersex traits" instead.

Creator Amanda Montañez tells the story behind the infographic in her article, "Visualizing Sex as a Spectrum".

GLSEN Gender Triangle - Graphic and Education Guide

GLSEN and interACT developed the Gender Triangle as an educational tool to highlight the main components that revolve around gender identity—our bodies, how we use our bodies to express ourselves, and how the world around us reads our bodies based on the cultural and social codes of our time and place.

Diverse Families Toolkit: There’s More Than One Way To Make a Family

This poster provides an important clarification when learning about biology - that our biological or genetic concept of family may be different from social or legal understandings of family. You can teach your students that all families are valid using this poster or other resources in the Gayby Baby Project’s Diverse families Toolkit.

“What Makes a Baby”: 8th grade edition!

In this blog post, Gender Inclusive Biology contributor Lewis-Maday Travis discusses how he adapted a gender-inclusive reproduction picture book for his 8th grade students. He also discusses student-created language to describe a person who contributes an egg or a sperm to create a new human.

Diagram of Mammalian Sex Determination

This diagram shows basic gene expression and hormone signalling pathways leading to to development of the mammalian gonads. The “dpc” on the x-axis of the graph means days post-conception. This image goes one step further than teaching that “the Y chromosome causes development of testes.”

For an AP Biology class learning about signaling pathways, reading a larger selection from the source article may be useful.

Source: Kashimada, Kenichi, and Peter Koopman. "Sry: the master switch in mammalian sex determination." Development 137.23 (2010): 3921-3930.

Sex Determination – Why So Many Ways of Doing It?

This PLOS Biology article details the diverse mechanisms by which sex is determined in different species, how they evolved, and how they may look in the future. The article opens with a treatment of three common myths of sex determination.

Editor’s note: The term "hermaphrodite" is appropriate for referring to non-human animals with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. For humans, “intersex” is the appropriate term—learn more here!

Although the entire reading is not for k-12 audiences, the three myths, Figure 3, Figure 4, and Box 2 are suitable for high school.

Diagram of Human Reproductive Process

Early in my teaching career I modified an existing diagram to create this image which shows how meiosis in testes and ovaries functions to complete the human life cycle. I could not in good conscience use existing diagrams where the two rows were labeled “Mother” and “Father”, “Woman” and “Man”, in text colored pink and blue, etc.. I needed something that precisely communicated the structures and processes involved, in a way that was simple for my students. Reflecting back, the phrases in parentheses may or may not be necessary depending on the audience. - Sam

Diagrams: Animal Lives Gallery by Humon

This gallery of art by Humon depicts diverse animal mating behavior in 20 different species.

LGBTQIA Science/STEM Etymology

This is a partial list of root words that occur in both LGBTQIA issues and STEM content. Each root word has its own poster. This is a tool to help teachers integrate gender-inclusive themes into their teaching.

You might ask students to speculate on the meaning of a new science word like “homozygous” based on the meaning of the familiar word “homosexual”. Or you might have students write formal definitions of “transgender” and “cisgender” to apply their vocabulary after a lesson on cis- and trans-isomers. By taking a quick moment to make the connection, you can improve student literacy and affirm diverse identities in your classroom.