In an effort to promote inclusiveness in the classroom, the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance has begun work on a program aimed at raising professors' awareness of issues that affect the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.
The initiative, which is still in the planning phase, could take the form of a pamphlet, video, panel discussion, or other device that highlights the role of heterosexism in the academic sphere.
"We've been doing a lot of programming and one of the areas we haven't hit is the academic area," DRA member Wendy Skelton '99 said.
"So we thought of this as an educational resource and to show how the classroom can be either inclusive or non-inclusive to the GLBT community," she said.
While no date has been set for program completion, the DRA has decided to emphasize ways in which language, course content, and classroom format can either promote or discourage a heterosexual bias.
The program is intended as a teaching tool for professors that want to, but do not know how to, be more inclusive, and also as a mechanism for students to share classroom experiences in which homosexuality was approached in either a positive or negative light.
"A lot of this reminds me of when the studies came out that suggested teachers call on boy students more than on girl students and teachers simply weren't aware of this," GLBT Programming Coordinator Pam Misener said. "We live in such a heterosexist world that it really takes awareness to realize that things are happening."
"The awareness works both ways. Gay students who are used to being invisible might not realize how it could be better," she said. "Or there might be a student who's in a really great environment but might not realize that it's not the same in other settings."
Skelton cited times when professors had either stumbled while saying words that described homosexuality or when a professor made and students laughed at what she described as "subtle, innocent" jokes that were homophobic as examples of heterosexual bias in the classroom.
Misener said that in terms of course materials, many literature classes only study books that describe heterosexual relationships. She also said that psychology and sociology textbooks fail to mention bisexuality or transgender people, or don't approach such issues sensitively.
While the thrust of the initiative is now on the academic sphere, the program might be expanded to help coaches and people involved with residential life effectively prevent heterosexism.
"It's very important for everyone to be aware of this," Misener said. "Everyone comes into contact with people who are in the GLBT community, and might even have kids that are as well, and needs to know how to deal with it."
