Living in Anti‐Intellectual Times: Addressing Transgender Inclusion in Second Language Teaching and Teacher Education

Abstract

At a time of acrimonious debates globally about gender identity and expression, students who identify as transgender (including those who are nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender fluid) are particularly affected. Although erased from the curriculum, they (and the ontological challenge trans people pose to the cisheteropatriarchal gender order in general) are omnipresent in political and media discourse. This can be particularly challenging for teachers who are often unclear about the issues involved and unsure how to support these students to whom they have a duty of care. Despite decades of legislative reform across much of the world with regard to transgender rights, education sectors globally have been hesitant to include gender (and sexual) diversity in the curriculum. This article explores the complex set of reasons as to why this erasure persists in English Language Teaching. In doing so, it addresses the concepts of “reproductive futurism,” “hyper‐reactionary neoliberalism,” “postfascism,” “biological essentialism,” and the commercial logic of global edu‐business as key factors. The article concludes by considering some of the options for teaching and teacher education.