The Praxis of Queer Pedagogy

Course Syllabus

Updated Oct 8, 2010 by James Sheldon (facilitator)
Please feel free to update and make changes.  In the words of wikipedia, WP: Be Bold!   Please note here when you update this document.

What is queer pedagogy? 

This is the question that we will be working together to answer over the course of this course.  

A tentative definition:

Queer pedagogy is the notion that we need to radically examine and
redefine how we think about and conceptualize the act of teaching, our
notions and practices of knowledge, and our formal and informal
curriculum.

Course Introduction

This is a three-part course-- each part is six weeks long for a total of twelve weeks.   Part one is a basic orientation to the definitions of queer pedagogy.  Part two introduces the principles and practice of queer pedagogy.   Students develop a proposal for a practical queer pedagogical intervention project.  In part three, students work individually and collaboratively to develop and implement their projects.    Students may join in any part of the course.

This course gives students an opportunity to read and discuss readings on these topics and to use this knowledge base in order to

construct an individual project implementing the principles of queer pedagogy.

Part One
In part one, students read an article of their choice in teams of two or three and use collaborative annotation software to share their thoughts and comments on the article.  These articles should preferably be from freely available online resources but may also be chosen from an article database if students have access to one.  Assignments throughout the six weeks guide students through the process of developing their own definitions of queer pedagogy.

Part Two
Part two involves developing a practical intervention project.    There are many options for possible projects.  If one is currently teaching a course somewhere, it could be a lesson plan, curriculum, or a change in classroom practices.  If one is in an activist group, it could be a training workshop or resource for that organization.   Students could found their own organization, start a website, start a blog, contribute to an existing website, write an academic article to submit for publication, or write a letter to the editor of a newspaper... the only requirement is that it be designed and be implemented in order to intervene in the real world in some fashion.

Part three

In part three, the focus would be on creating and revising students' projects.  Using online collaboration tools,
students read and comment on each other's work.  They could have
the option of working with another student or by themselves.
Assignments focus on clarifying, creating, editing, and revising
their work.  Part two culminates with the implementation of the project and some reflections on the results of what was done.

Technologies: There will be a variety of technologies that we utilize in this class.  I am available through skype, AIM, Yahoo, and by telephone if you need help with these technologies.  Please don't let technology be a barrier that keeps you from participating in the course.

Part one of course:

Sep 26-Oct 2  Week One: Introduction to Queer Pedagogy

Assignment: Work in groups of two to three to work further on your sign-up task (brainstorming around the terms 'queer', 'pedagogy', and 'queer pedagogy.'   Record your original contributions, clearly attributed.  Then come up with group definitions for each of the three terms.   Explore around on the internet.  Write a paragraph about how the definitions you found of the three terms online are similar to or differ from the ones that you found.   We will then discuss these as a class and come up with a shared definition.
 

Synchronous meeting: In the first semester, we will be scheduling a meeting in which we are all able to communicate simultaneously.  Depending on the technology students have available, this may be video, voice, or text-based.  At this meeting, we will introduce ourselves, and discuss what our expectations are and what we hope to get out of the class.

Oct 3 - Oct 8 Week Two: Continue to refine definitions.

Oct 17- Oct 22 Foundations of Queer Pedagogy

October 26  Final assignments due by this date.  Late assignments will be accepted with reasonable excuses ;-)  This is an exercise in developing good excuses; feel free to brainstorm in a wiki or google document good ideas for homework excuses... LOL.

Part Two of course: tentative schedule

Week One: Brainstorming Project Ideas

Assignment: Work as a class to brainstorm ideas for a project.    Choose your topic.  Decide if you want to work alone or in a team.

We will be holding a second synchronous meeting where we are all present at the same time in order to choose topics and see who might want to work together.

Midterm evaluation: Students will complete an evaluation about the instructor and the course.  They will also complete a self-evaluation evaluating their own performance in the course.  The instructor will use this information to write his own self-evaluation and to write a brief evaluation of each student's performance.

Week Two: Project Outline, Further Development of Foundations

Assignment:  Begin using the project outline to develop your project.  Revise and edit your project with classmates using virtual collaboration tools.

Week Three: 
"extra credit" for writing week there and four of second semester
Week Four:

Week Five: Final proposal due.   We will have one final synchronous meeting in which students will have an opportunity to present their final proposal to the class, and we will discuss the next steps in the course and what part two will look like.
Assignment: Hand in final proposal.  Complete self-evaluation of performance in course.