Working to combat, speak back to, and shift discourses concerning issues of genders, sexuality/ies, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and 2-spirit (LGBTQ2) identities in school classrooms and curriculum, this article highlights the capacity in building more inclusive elementary classroom spaces through tinkering in teacher education.…

This article presents the findings from a national study on the experiences of educators with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) topics in elementary schools and recommendations for practice based in our experiences as classroom teachers and teacher educators. Using responses to open-ended questions that were part of a…

This article proposes a reflective process to increase awareness of heteronormativity in student-teacher and student-student interactions. I used 3 theoretical lenses -- queer, feminist, and intersectional -- to identify and analyze how gender, sex, and sexuality norms influenced interactions in an after-school reading club. This research site was…

In this article, a teacher educator and a New York City elementary public school teacher share insights from a yearlong collaboration whereby they worked together to interrupt normative pedagogical practices regarding gender, sexuality, and interrelated identities within the context of a second-grade classroom. Bridging the typical disconnect…

The heterogendered cultural discourse that privileges heterosexuality and normalizes sexual and gender binaries damages the science knowledge and opportunities to engage in science learning that children experience in elementary school science. This article analyzes a typical science lesson on crayfish to show how the heterogendered obsession with…

This article provides insights into what is possible when a bilingual teacher education program provides support for teachers who want to discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) topics in their classrooms. This study is set in Southern Arizona, a bilingual, multicultural community in predominantly Mexican American…

This article presents the results of a thorough content analysis of 28 LGBTQ award-winning picturebooks. As a queer teacher educator working with pre-service elementary teachers, I wanted to find out how the queer picturebooks available for use in my students' classrooms were any good at helping them and their future students understand that…

This article examines the complex, deeply personal processes that elementary educators engage as they learn to become inclusive practitioners of gender and sexual diversity (GSD). We complicate literature that highlights structural barriers and negative influences such as lack of administrative support and homophobic attitudes as key factors that…

One of the most common responses from pre- and in-service teachers related to addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) topics in elementary school is a concern about parents' responses. This article explores these concerns by examining two elementary school teachers' interactions with parents in relation to their…

Preparing effective dual-language global teachers who will be culturally proficient is paramount not because of state licensure mandates but because society owes it to its school children. This chapter discusses cultural proficiency as a theoretical framework to develop culturally proficient global dual-language teachers. The goal is to prepare…

Due to the preK-12 student growth, the exponential growth of dual-language programs, and the gentrification of dual-language education, the need for critically conscious dual-language teachers is undeniably vital today. Institutions of higher education, in particular colleges of education, find themselves at the center of a transformative era, in…

Dual language educators and program planners rely on the concept of 'language as a resource' as a foundational principle of dual language education (DLE). Traditionally, the term has been juxtaposed to viewing language as a problem and treating students' home linguistic and cultural experiences as a deficit rather than an asset for teaching and…

Two-way dual language (TWDL) bilingual education programs share three core goals: academic achievement, bilingualism and biliteracy, and sociocultural competence. This article proposes a fourth core goal: critical consciousness. Although TWDL programs are designed to integrate students from diverse language, culture, and race backgrounds, equity…

The Bilingual Education Act was passed in 1968 to address the challenges faced by emerging bilingual students in U.S. schools. Fifty years later, ideologies promoting bilingual education persist with a discourse of "one nation, one territory, one language nationalism." The bilingual and multiple language repertoires necessary for…

In this article we draw on translanguaging theory and notions of strategies and tactics as a way to understand what we refer to as dual languaging in the context of TWDL schooling. We provide examples of dual languaging practices in fourth-grade math and social studies lessons that took place in a Spanish-English TWDL elementary school located in…