Professor also teaches K-12 schools how to be more LGBT friendly
Aspiring high school English and social studies teachers can learn “queering literacy” methods at the University of Colorado at Boulder this upcoming fall semester.
“Queering Literacy in Secondary Classrooms” teaches students using “theories and practices of literacy teaching and learning that challenge multiple forms of oppression,” according to the course description.
“Using the tools of queer pedagogy,” this course will prepare education majors to “develop, and enact strategies for planning and implementing literacy instruction that moves beyond inclusion of differences in the English/language arts and social studies curriculum,” the course description states.
A professor who regularly teaches the course provided further insights on the content in a phone interview with The College Fix.
Professor Sara Staley described education as facing a “highly polarized political moment right now, especially around topics like DEI.” The current listed professor for the fall 2025 semester is Ashley Cartun.
Staley said she wants to support “teachers and students” who are “trying to create spaces of belonging in every classroom.” She said Colorado “laws and policies” require teachers to “create a safe, respectful, inclusive learning environment for a diverse population of students.”
She said, “a lot of research” shows teachers are not trained enough in “gender and sexual diversity.” Staley also co-runs the Queer Endeavor, a CU-Boulder program that works in “close collaboration with district and school leaders, K-12 teachers, and counselors” for LGBTQ education.
There is also “a lot of research that shows that school can be a pretty unwelcoming place for students who are different” especially for “queer and trans youths,” Staley said.
The class she teaches helps students learn about “diverse identities” and “what it looks like to read a book with a queer character in it” without reinforcing “negative stereotypes.”
Staley said, “queer pedagogy” is about “supporting students to think critically by asking questions of what they read.”
For example, she says, “if you’re a straight person who doesn’t know a lot of LGBT people in your life, maybe reading a book that features a queer, trans character, that might make you feel uncomfortable.” She said her goal is to help the teachers feel more comfortable teaching this content.
“One of the tools of queer pedagogy is tapping into those emotional feelings we sometimes feel when we encounter things we think are different,” she said.
The professor also said sexuality issues in early education needs to be “age appropriate” but that is “actually a really hard question” and should be “worked out school-by-school.”
Kindergarten teachers, for example, might discuss “what the whole range of families can look like,” instead of “sexuality.”
The director of outreach at Defending Education said schools should be careful about what they teach when it comes to sexuality.
“LGBT topics in curriculum outside of sex education/health are a problem because it’s mature subject matter about which parents aren’t notified and can’t opt out,” Erika Sanzi told The Fix via email. She said such topics have “no place in elementary school.” She is a former teacher, administrator, and school board member.
“[O]ne major reason we see so much content about sexuality and gender is because state education departments, many of which are pretty ideologically captured at this point, either require or recommend it,” Sanzi said. “They are the ones who added the state standards around gender and sexuality—including in very young grades—and they are the ones who can remove them.”
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A young person holds an LGBT flag; Emma Rahmani/Baseimage