CONT959: Inclusive Practices: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Educational Settings
In this course, you’ll dive into what it truly means to build a SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) inclusive practice. You’ll explore how adopting this lens helps your students feel seen, heard, represented and safe—and why that matters deeply in today’s classrooms.
As an educator, you play a vital role in shaping schools into affirming spaces for queer students, their families and caregivers, colleagues and community members. In this course, you’ll learn how to apply current terminology, evolving language, and inclusive curriculum strategies that reflect best practices and evidence-based research.
In a world that’s increasingly challenging for those outside the cis-heteronormative binary, your commitment to this learning is an act of care and advocacy. This course will help you align your practice with professional standards while fostering the empathy and responsibility you bring to your role. In this course, you’ll gain
- a deeper understanding of SOGI-inclusive education
- practical tools for integrating inclusive language and curriculum
- confidence in supporting queer students and communities
- insight from queer voices, stories and research
This is more than a course—it’s a call to action. You’ll leave equipped to create learning environments where queer students feel safe, affirmed and empowered to thrive.
Learning Outcomes
What You Will Learn and Do
In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to
- synthesize how inclusive language practices are foundational to current best practices in teaching
- explore how SOGI inclusion supports a justice framework for learning and is connected to human rights laws
- apply interdisciplinary approaches to SOGI inclusion and culture building within a classroom, school and community
- build an inclusion practice that contributes to a community mindset of care and belonging for all students
- implement interdisciplinary approaches to SOGI inclusion and culture building within a classroom, school and community
- develop an inclusion practice that contributes to a community mindset of care and belonging for all students
- examine how SOGI inclusion practices are essential in capacity building and fostering a culture of safety in our schools and beyond
- evaluate your own biases and be given tools that support the cultivation of peer-to-peer learning relationships to maintain a reflective justice framework and action-oriented approach to pedagogy
- discover that community is essential in maintaining a reflective practice that is rooted in justice and an action-oriented approach to SOGI inclusion
- create a multifaceted approach to SOGI inclusion on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycle
Assessments
Module 1
Inclusion in Educational Contexts
Module 2
SOGI and Inclusion
Progress Update 1
Module 3
SOGI in the Curriculum
Module 4
Building Inclusive Classrooms and Spaces
Formative Assessment
Module 5
Fostering an Inclusive School Community
Progress Update 2
Module 6
Professional Development Applications
Module 7
Developing Your SOGI-Informed Inclusive Practice
Summative Assessment