First gay teachers’ summit takes place
Oct 12th, 2009 | By Gooner | Category: Current Affairs
The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) endorsed a group of LGBTQ teachers in November of 2004 and thus let the world know that they can see the need for work to be done in this are. The group held their first education conference, called Anseo, on Saturday last (Oct 10 2009).
Sheila Crowley, chairwoman of the group, said the name of the conference, made a statement that gay teachers belong in classrooms.
I have listened to many children over the years calling out ‘anseo’,” she said, adding that she was proud to give the same answer.
According to their website the groups goals are:
- To promote and expand the group and to continue to provide support for all members.
- To work with the INTO equality officers and the Equality Authority in tackling Section 37 (i) of the Employment Equality Act 1998, 2004.
- To form links with teachers from other unions (ASTI and TUI), student and retired teachers.
- To endorse and support the work of BeLonGTo (BeLonGTo Youth Project, supporting and resourcing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people aged 18-23).
- To liaise with GLEN and other professional groups around common goals.
- To make submissions regarding heterosexist bias in curricula (especially RSE and SPHE).
At the conference the union launched its “Good Practice Guidelines” entitled “Anseo! Creating an Inclusive Staffroom for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Staff” to tackle homophobia in the staffrooms of Irish schools.
This has to be a good thing as if they can try to eliminate homophobia in the staff room that must go some way to helping eliminate it in the class room. What hope do young LGBTQ people have if their teachers are telling gay jokes over coffee at lunchtime? Not much!
I remember seeing this group marching at the Dublin Pride parade and it was wonderful to see them. They were in the same part of the parade as BeLongTo and it was great to see teachers marching along with young gays. They deserve a great deal of credit.
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That’s great news. Is there an equivalent in the ASTI?
Thanks Una.
You can read about the ASTI group at this link
http://www.asti.ie/about-asti/policy/equality/asti-gay-lesbian-network/
This is fantastic news. However, as a primary teacher, I should mention that these attitudes are, if not encouraged, then at least tolerated to some degree in the primary teacher training colleges. Nearly all male teaching students (the ones who buy newspapers, anyway) read tabloids. It’s a predominantly conservative environment, built around parochialism and GAA. That said, one of the great (albeit obvious) things about the huge women-men imbalance in the profession is that women are generally far more accepting and liberal in their views towards LGBT issues. Whatever’s at the root of this wave of activism, long may it continue. There are a good few gay student teachers in the system these days and this summit is timely (well, it’s long overdue, but let’s not split hairs). Let’s just say the last line on the INTO LGBT group’s website is telling: ‘Confidentiality assured.’ I’ll be marching with Anseo at the next Pride.
Of course, they’ll be marching under the INTO LGBTQ banner – I see Anseo is just the name of their inaugural conference. D’oh!
Thanks so much for the comments AstonishingSodApe, it’s great to hear from a teacher on this issue.
I really hope more people join you in marching next pride as visibility of this group could go a long way to challenging the negativity some gay teachers have to endure.
I qualify next year. My fears on this and other topics became confounded by negative gay remarks in my short, closeted teaching experience.
I will be trying to do a masters after this… a relatively recent decision… to give myself more options in case the climate really is just not suitable for a lesbian agnostic!
So sorry to hear about your experience Leo, hopefully summits like this one will highlight the need for educating the educators!!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts