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The book “Rainbow Readings for Language Classes” seeks to bring ‘queer’ pedagogy closer to schools and institutes through comics and literature with LGBT+ content
That education reflects the future of a society in full change is a fact. One more than compelling reason for knowledge not only to be transmitted in the classroom, but also to be learned valuesthe afiancé experiences and it is known a plural and egalitarian world. And it is that the educational system must be in constant renewal and incorporate into its study plans methodologies that favor inclusive teaching. This is how Guillermo Soler collects it in the book «Rainbow readings for language classes: approaches to ‘queer’ pedagogy».
We speak of the school as the place where the identity of young people is slowly forged. That ‘queer’ discourses begin to boil allows students who deviate from the norm to be able to read themselves and the rest of the students learn and empathize with the difference, valuing literature as the driving force behind these arguments. And it is that this ‘queer’ pedagogy is based on books to make visible the different sexual or gender identities. Of course, for this teaching method to be articulated, teachers need to stop looking at the reading through a magnifying glass that only enlarges the normative stories and, with binoculars, begin to observe other stories, until now corneredto build a freer school.
Guillermo Soler
Other stories that the author of this book selects, providing the reader with an anthology of texts that brings unquestionable added value to these pages. Among many others, the academic from the University of Alicante proposes titles such as “Paula has two moms”, “Cris’s ranch” or the comic “Sandman”. Soler leaves no loose ends and find the solution for those who ignore LGBT+ stories in their classes for not damaging the innocence of childhood: disconnect relationships from sexual connotations and bring them closer only to feelings.
Normalizing an identity other than the heteronormative one in the classroom would help young people to live a full childhood and adolescence, free of prejudices, being able to be comfortable with who they really are, and children’s and youth literature offers itself as an essential ally in this task. The evolution of society demands that these commitments to diversity don’t stay scattered in no man’s land. Diversity resides in the people we live with on a daily basis, and we need to know and accept it from the early stages of our lives, says Soler, making a special defense of the most persecuted and prosecuted group within the LGBT+ population: transsexual people.
The classroom space is presented as the ideal to introduce affective-sexual and gender diversity, traditionally silenced in education. Through a pedagogical model designed for the Language and Literature classthe ‘queer’ seeks to combat stereotypes and create a more respectful school through reading.
Culture stands as the ideal transmitter of values, not only because of the image on film or television, but also with the magic of words and the power of stories. For this reason, a good story, well written, with literary quality, that tells us the daily life of a family with two mothers, the fun adventures of a trans person or a love story between two girls, allows the reader to identify and empathize. with the characters. Soler affirms that between work and student reader a link is forged that helps to assimilate values thanks to the emotions that these books arouse.
And it is that the rainbow only comes out when the drops of water and the rays of the sun come together to add seven colors. Thus, in ‘queer’ pedagogy, Literature and education link their paths to multiply forces and include the LGTB+ collective in the imagination of all students.
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Title: «Rainbow readings for Language classes: approaches to ‘queer’ pedagogy»
Author: Guillermo Soler Quílez
Editorial: Editions of the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Arcadian Collection
Year of edition: 2022
Available in UNEbook
Recognitions: Collection recognized with the Seal of Quality in Academic Edition (CEA-APQ)