Queering the English Language Classroom: A Practical Guide for Teachers

Joshua Paiz’s monograph Queering the English Language Classroom makes him a pioneer in this important, timely, developing field. The book extends concern with gay/lesbian issues in ELT to queer (actually LGBTQ+) matters more widely, and in particular, to transgender matters. Further, the book locates this even more broadly in a concern for what might be called critical pedagogic enquiry. It is as near-comprehensive as a short monograph can be, covering the philosophy and sexual/social politics behind queering the English language classroom, professional (including curricular) implications, inclusive materials, and contextually-shaped associated classroom strategies. Crucially it is, as the subtitle claims, ‘a practical guide for teachers’, and Paiz writes—very accessibly—from a long professional experience of being a gay, cis male educator in the world of second and foreign language education. Accordingly, the book is grounded and pragmatic. This is not an evangelical book, but one that sets out to promote respectful debate. Importantly, the book is not only for teachers of students who identify as LGBTQ+ or for LGBTQ+ language learners themselves, but also for ‘non-LGBTQ+ language learners to be better able to interact respectfully with LGBTQ+ individuals’ (p. xi).