Week Ten: Inclusive and Accessible Education

Inclusivity and acceptance in education is, in my eyes, the single largest motivating factor in me becoming an educator for young students. For context, I am a very open and proud pansexual and trans/non-binary person who is now navigating the process to become an educator in a system that largely felt indifferent or even hostile to someone with my identity as I was growing up. In fact, I didn’t even have the language or understanding to describe my identities until I was already in high school, and by that point I had already been framed and ridiculed by a lot of my peers as being weird, different, and other. Add on to this the fact that I am also ADHD, and struggled to maintain a lot of my friendships and relationships due to differences in the way I processed and understood social situations, and it’s pretty clear to imagine that I felt very ostracized and isolated as a student growing up in the school system.

I never want someone to feel the way that I did when I was younger, and it is my belief that we should celebrate and embrace difference in all of its beautiful forms among our diverse and incredible students. I want more educators to understand that students understand who they are better than anyone else, and that we should actively be modeling inclusivity and acceptance at all times. For example, one of the largest areas of contention for me while growing up was the way that educators split activities into groups based on gender. Since I am a non-binary person, I never really knew which group to join or where I belonged in those scenarios because I wasn’t a binary boy or girl, even if I didn’t necessarily have the appropriate language to describe that at the time. Because of situations like this, it is so incredibly vital for educators to consider how they may be excluding students in the way they organize their lessons.

Everyone, regardless of their differences in ability, age, class, race, gender, sexuality, or any other identity, deserves to attend a school that celebrates and dignifies who they are and that is willing to champion inclusivity at all times. Below I have included a QR code that links to resources that have been compiled by Trans Care BC for families to more effectively communicate with schools about supporting their children. This is an incredibly valuable resource.