Surviving, thriving, and resisting: Reimagining the ordinary gendered lives of TESOLers

Abstract

The guest editors introduce five studies in this special issue on gender equality. The five articles address the gender disparities in English language teaching as they intersect with learner and teacher identities. Despite progress made in the field for the past 20 years, we are reminded that women and queer individuals in our educational spaces, such as students and practitioners, continue to experience gender‐based oppression such as recent bans on abortion, control over their bodies, lack of access to education, basic needs such as food and housing security (Kendall, 2020), gender violence, homophobia and transphobia, and the silencing of teachers' racial and queer justice efforts in schools. Patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism—systems predicated on a gender binary and hierarchies—materialize in our educational contexts through homogenous views of identity and language that erase difference. These systems reward competition and hierarchical thinking while punishing creative border‐crossing practices. Therefore, understanding how social issues make their way into our language classrooms becomes important for all TESOLers and other educators as they directly shape students' learning, pedagogical practices, curriculum design, etc.. However, the authors of these studies also demonstrate that women and people with non‐conforming gender identities are still here and very much present in English language classrooms, surviving, resisting, and reimagining collective action for all to learn in more equitable conditions. This article builds on the studies presented in the special issue to suggest additional professional practices in order to mitigate gender‐based oppressions in the field.