SOGI-Inclusive Education in Surrey Schools

SOGI-Inclusive Education in Surrey Schools: 

SOGI and Social & Emotional Learning in Elementary

No student is too young for SOGI-inclusive education. Elementary school-aged children strengthen their Personal and Social Competencies and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills when they explore their complex identities and how they are similar to and different from other people. As students become more self-aware, they may better understand their own thoughts and feelings, strengths and challenges. As they continue to develop, children learn that who they are is inextricably linked to the values and culture of the people and institutions around them, such as their family, classroom, school, community, city, province, and country. Increasing self-awareness creates a foundation on which students learn about how to regulate emotions and manage their behaviors and responses. In turn students' learn to navigate increasingly complex social situations and make closer, more meaningful and successful relationships and more informed and healthy decisions. In doing so, students have also employed communication and critical thinking skills that will help them to succeed in a pluralistic, and information-rich society.  

"Self-awareness is the keystone of emotional intelligence. The ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is also crucial to psychological insight and self-understanding. And inability to notice our true feelings leaves us at their mercy. People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives."-Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee, 2002

The SOGI-Inclusive Classroom

SOGI-inclusive education at the elementary level helps children to see that aspects of their identity like gender should not limit their tastes, choices, or opportunities.  Children in early elementary school will learn about the different aspects of themselves and that their gender is one aspect of themselves and that people can express themselves in more than two ways--not just masculine or feminine. SOGI-inclusive education encourages educators to help students rethink stereotypes and gender-normative behaviour and language.

Another important aspect of elementary school-aged children's education is understanding how our environments influence us and children are supported in thinking about, discussing, and representing their family.  SOGI-inclusive education acknowledges the diversity of family structure and organization and supports children in seeing the similarities as more significant--we all have and want people to love us and we tend to be (to look, think, and act) similar to those closest to us. If this is true, how can we learn about other perspectives of the phenomena of life?  How do we ensure that we are hearing all voices? How do we all find a common purpose so that we can live together happily? These are some of the big questions that guide SOGI-inclusive education at all levels.

Lesson Plans

Below are some lesson plans from SOGI 123 that might be taught in a SOGI-inclusive, elementary school classroom:

"Responding to "That's so gay!" responding-to-22thats-so-gay22-1 3.docx

"What is a Family?"  what-is-a-family-1.docx

"Gender Identity and Media Stereotypes" gender-identity-media-and-steroetypes-1.docx

SOGI and Social & Emotional Learning in Secondary Schools

Social justice education at the secondary level begins, as elementary school learning does, with personal awareness, reflection, and responsibility as the roots of more complex social and emotional learning about students' rights and responsibilities as members of a group--first a family, and then a classroom, school, community, and society. In high school, students are learning to navigate highly nuanced relationships and the ways their conduct must respond to both location and audience. Our present era is made more complex by the need for students to also navigate the twists and turns of online conversation whose tones and meaning are difficult to decipher, and to avoid or respond appropriately to online aggression or even bullying--the impact of which has gained great attention in the media. 

Social and Emotional Learning can help students to understand the consequences of their beliefs and actions, believe in their own agency, and ultimately, to make choices that are healthy and respectful. SOGI-Inclusive Learning is simply a lens on Social and Emotional Learning through which the onlooker notices how gender constructs are built and maintained, what the impacts of these constructs are on young people, and how to deconstruct the idea that all people fit nicely into two boxes: girl or boy.  What happens when we don't fit perfectly into one of the boxes in some aspect of ourselves--our bodies, emotions, tastes, thoughts, or behaviours?  When students begin to feel too different to fit in one of the boxes, they can feel alone, isolated, unconfident or even self-loathing--feelings that could be strengthened when others notice the ill-fitting aspect too.  SOGI-inclusive education helps us to see that there are more than two boxes that we can fit into--or no boxes at all--and that if we do, we can still be valued, healthy, and whole, contributing members of a society.

"Schools have a legal, ethical, and moral obligation to provide equal access to education and equal protection under the law for all students. For many sexual minority students, however, schools are unsafe and survival, not education, is the priority." (Weiler, 2003, p. 10)

SOGI 123 Secondary Lesson Plans

SOGI 123 Lesson Plans for Secondary School Students

Language and Terminology to Explore Gender and Sexuality language-and-terminology-to-explore-gender-and-sexuality-1.docx

Social Justice Vocabulary social-justice-vocabulary-1.docx