Masculinity Disrupt·Ed
What is it about ?
This professional development course is designed for pre-service teachers who are interested in the complex issues intersecting gender equity and social justice in education. The course is designed to provoke conversations rather than provide answers. These conversations are grounded in (pro)feminist Critical Masculinities Studies (CMS) as we explore the complex issues surrounding transformative pedagogies and gender in education.
What can you expect from this course ?
Mainstream media reports, schools, universities, and education more generally have increasingly called for more attention to “the boys”, claiming there is a “boy crisis” and pointing to concerns over boys’ academic underachievement. However, at the heart of this debate is a set of often-overlooked assumptions about gender, masculinity, and boys’ schooling. What is missing is a critical examination of our constructions of boyhood and manhood that don’t value or make room for the diverse identities and experiences of boys and men. In response to this debate, this course unpacks the beliefs and practices that underpin our understandings of masculinity through topics including but not limited to body image, dick pics, mental health, sports, intersectionality, and media representations. We will explore the roles that teachers and education can play in disrupting misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia as well as how we can nurture caring and pluralistic notions of being boys and men.
How will this benefit your teaching ?
As pre-service teachers, participating in this course will help to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of transformative pedagogies. Through safe yet challenging conversations, we will develop the critical skills and confidence to question taken-for-granted assumptions about gender and education in the curriculum, policies, and practices. The participants will help to co-produce knowledge and resources, which will be carefully compiled on this site as a resource to inform inclusive and disruptive teaching practices, course design, and lesson plans.