2018 ESA Annual Meeting (August 5 -- 10)

WK 40 - Inclusive and Accurate Approaches for Teaching Sex and Gender in Biology

Thursday, August 9, 2018: 11:30 AM-1:15 PM
346-347, New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
Organizer:
Alex J. Webster
Co-organizer:
Ash T. Zemenick
Sexual reproduction, sexual behavior, and sexual selection are complex and context-dependent processes. However, in courses covering biology, ecology, evolution, and animal behavior, these topics are overly-simplified into binary concepts and often conflated with gender identity in humans. Science educators know that this teaching paradigm is problematic and potentially harmful, but lack the tools to address it, and therefore defer to outdated language and examples. With this workshop, we will empower educators (LGBTQ+ oriented or not) to expand their toolbox beyond binary constructions of sex, sexuality and gender in biology. Specifically, we will: 1) overview the scientific evidence that biological sex and sexuality in non-humans is also diverse, 2) provide biologically accurate and socially inclusive definitions of gender, sex, and sexual systems, 3) highlight interpersonal problems that LGBTQ+ people face in the classroom/STEM careers, and 4) provide tangible examples, resources, and easy to integrate methods to empower educators to make their classrooms more inclusive and accurate. This final portion will include interactive activities to practice these tools. Participants will leave with resources to reinforce and expand tools into their classrooms and work settings. Finally, we would like to emphasize that everyone is welcome to attend this workshop, regardless of identity, educational setting, or work environment. We hope this effort will inspire inclusivity efforts in a diversity of professional settings along all axes of human identity.

Registration Fee: $0

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