Queering Education: LGBTQ+ Inclusive Teaching, Queer Pedagogy, and Real Classroom Practice

Bryan Stanton
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Education
  • Semiweekly

Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast about LGBTQ inclusive teaching, queer pedagogy, and building authentic, affirming classrooms. Hosted by Bryan Stanton, the show offers practical strategies for educators navigating real challenges in today’s classrooms—connecting theory to practice through conversations, storytelling, and actionable tools.. Each episode centers the lived experiences of queer educators and how they show up for their students, even in systems that weren’t built for them. Whether you’re a K–12 teacher, higher education faculty member, or school leader, you’ll find actionable ways to create affirming learning environments for LGBTQ students and beyond. Through solo episodes and conversations with educators, researchers, and advocates, Queering Education connects theory to practice—covering topics like queer curriculum, equity in education, classroom culture, and navigating policy and resistance in schools. If you’re asking:  How do I support LGBTQ students right now?  What does inclusive teaching actually look like in practice?  How do I show up authentically as an educator?  You’re in the right place. This is Queering Education, a Teaching While Queer podcast.

  1. 1d ago

    Who Gets Called a “Bad Student”? | Ep. 227 (with Samrat Sharma)

    Samrat Sharma is a queer immigrant scholar from India pursuing a dual-title PhD at Penn State. In this conversation with Bryan Stanton, he compares schooling in India and the United States, from unequal resources and school meals to the gap between education policy and what children actually receive. Samrat also shares his research with the Hijra community in New Delhi. By studying gossip and cussing as ways people build community and share knowledge, he asks who gets labelled a “good” or “bad” student, and whose knowledge schools recognise. In this episode, you will: Examine how funding, caste, and access to food shape students’ opportunities. Explore how community language can teach, protect, and connect people outside a classroom. Consider what queer educators carry into their work from the generations before them. The conversation returns to a question at the heart of Teaching While Queer: how can educators recognise the knowledge communities already hold and help make a dignified life possible for every student? Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  2. Oct 22

    Don’t Dim Your Light: Queer Leadership and Being Yourself at Work | Ep. 226 (with Di'Andre Davenport)

    Di’Andre Davenport has built a career around helping young people find opportunities to lead. A first-generation master’s graduate from Paterson, New Jersey, he talks with Bryan about civic engagement, the mentors who recognized his strengths, and what it means to build a professional life without hiding his identity as a Black gay man. Their conversation moves from the joy of Di’Andre’s first Pride to a homophobic comment on a university video that briefly made him want to hide. Di’Andre reflects on how the university responded, and why every student and staff member deserves the same support, whether or not they are well known on campus. He and Bryan also question who gets to define “professional,” from colorful clothes and blue braids to the questions queer people can ask in a job interview. In this episode, you will: Hear how mentors helped Di’Andre turn his strengths into a role he created at William Paterson University. Consider what meaningful institutional support looks like when a queer staff member faces harassment. Explore how personal style and authenticity can shape queer leadership at work. Di’Andre’s story asks educators and leaders to notice both the people coming into their own and the conditions that allow them to do so openly. It is a conversation about making room for the next person to show up as themselves. Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  3. Oct 15

    “Only Girls Wear Earrings”: What a Kindergartner’s Question Can Teach Us About Gender | Ep. 225 (with Sulwyn Garcia)

    Sulwyn is a primary school teacher in Copenhagen who has taught across five countries. In this conversation, they and Bryan talk about what young children learn about gender long before anyone gives them a formal lesson, and how a teacher can respond when a child asks an unexpected question. Sulwyn shares a moment from their classroom: a five-year-old notices their earrings and asks if they are a girl. Rather than shutting the question down, Sulwyn asks what the child means. Their exchange offers a practical glimpse of queer literacy in the early years. The conversation also makes room for the safety of queer educators, the different choices teachers face in different places, and the joy Sulwyn finds with their students and in Copenhagen’s ballroom community. In this episode, you will: Explore how everyday classroom language and interactions can reinforce ideas about gender. Hear how a simple follow-up question can help young children reconsider who gets to wear earrings. Consider how queer educators can care for their own safety and cultivate joy beyond school. Queering education happens in small, repeated moments as well as larger changes. Sulwyn’s story offers a way to think about those moments with curiosity and care, for children and educators alike. Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  4. Oct 8

    What Does Belonging Look Like When Working in Higher Ed? | Ep. 224 (with Renee Wells)

    Renee has worked in classrooms, taught writing and literature, and now helps colleges put their commitments to equity into practice. In this conversation with Bryan, they look at the assumptions built into higher education, from who gets recognized as a leader to whose needs are considered in workplace policies. They also talk about restorative practices beyond the classroom. Renee describes how colleagues can build community before harm happens, respond when it does, and turn broad commitments to belonging into concrete ways of caring for one another. In this episode, you will: Examine how everyday assumptions about leadership and workplace culture can leave people out. Explore restorative practices for building trust and responding to harm among colleagues. Consider how to move from abstract conversations about DEI to meeting specific needs. Renee’s work is a reminder that inclusive education depends on the people who teach and support students, too. What could change if we built our workplaces with the same care we hope to bring into our classrooms? Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  5. Oct 1

    Who is AI Really Built For? Queering Technology | Ep. 223 (with Raj Korpan)

    What happens when we stop treating technology as neutral and start asking who it was actually built to serve? In this episode, Bryan sits down with Raj Korpan, an assistant professor of computer science at Hunter College, to explore the intersection of queer identity, education, artificial intelligence, and technology ethics. Raj shares how he encourages computer science students to question the defaults built into technology, connect their identities and communities to what they create, and consider the human consequences of even seemingly small design decisions. Their conversation moves beyond the simple question of whether educators and students should use AI. Instead, Raj offers a more nuanced approach: start with the learning goal, understand what students actually need to learn, and then decide whether AI has a useful role. He also shares his research with LGBTQ+ communities around AI and robot companions, including what queer participants actually want from these technologies—and what they decidedly do not. In this episode, you will: Explore how educators can move beyond blanket AI bans and help students make intentional, transparent choices about when and why they use generative AI.Examine how bias in large language models can reproduce stereotypes about queer identities, families, pronouns, and lived experiences—and why learning to audit these systems matters.Discover what Raj's research with LGBTQ+ participants reveals about designing technology around real community needs rather than assuming one tool can serve everyone.This conversation invites educators to approach AI with curiosity without abandoning critical thinking. Queering education means questioning defaults, noticing who is missing, and imagining what we might build differently when marginalized communities have a meaningful role in shaping technology. Raj reminds us that queer communities have always created spaces, families, and systems of support for ourselves—and that same imagination can help us rethink the technologies entering our classrooms and our lives. Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  6. Sep 24

    What If the Classroom Is the Problem? What Queering Systems Looks Like | Ep. 222 (with Rutvik Sanke)

    What happens when education moves beyond textbooks, fixed classrooms, and predetermined paths? In this episode of Queering Education, Bryan Stanton sits down with architect, educator, and self-described queer nomad Rutvik Sanke to explore how identity, architecture, community, and indigenous ways of knowing can reshape the way we think about teaching and learning. Rutvik reflects on their experiences within education in India, from rigid academic structures to learning environments rooted in curiosity, movement, performance, craft, and community. They share why they resist scripted classrooms, how their queer identity naturally informs their teaching practice, and why education should prepare students not only for a profession, but also for meaningful participation in the communities around them. In this episode, you will: Explore how Rutvik uses architecture, textiles, performance, and community-based learning to challenge traditional ideas of what a classroom should be.Consider how simply showing up as an openly queer educator can influence pedagogy, relationships, and the sense of safety students experience.Learn why Rutvik believes education should be collaborative, evolving, and connected to the real needs of students and their communities.The conversation also examines dignity for educators, the limitations of institutional systems, the value of indigenous knowledge, and the importance of maintaining relationships with students long after they leave the classroom. At its heart, this episode invites us to reconsider where learning happens, who gets to define it, and what becomes possible when educators allow curiosity, identity, and community to become part of the curriculum. Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  7. Sep 17

    I Am Not Hiding Who I Am: Teaching, Drag, and the Right to Be Visible | Ep. 221 (with Sarabijit aka Kween Mallika)

    Sarabjit “Sam” is an educator, trained pharmacist, classically trained dancer, and drag performer whose work brings together teaching, South Asian culture, queerness, and performance. In this conversation, Sam shares how bringing drag and culturally specific workshops into schools helped them recognize the power of representation—and ultimately helped lead them toward becoming a licensed teacher in Canada.  Sam and Bryan also dig into what happens when educators are expected to separate their professional identities from the rest of their lives. From being asked whether they would hide their public drag profile during a teaching practicum to creating boundaries with students and bringing queer cultural history into the classroom, Sam makes a clear distinction between professionalism and erasing who you are.  In this episode, you will: Explore how Sam’s experiences as a South Asian drag performer working with students shaped their decision to pursue teaching and become the representation they rarely saw in schools. Hear how Sam responded when their public drag identity became an issue during teacher training and why they refused to hide a legitimate part of their life and work. Consider how queer educators can maintain professional boundaries while still showing up authentically, from social media and performance to helping students understand the queer and trans histories behind the language they use. Sam’s story reminds us that queering education isn’t about asking educators to leave pieces of themselves outside the classroom. It is about creating schools where students and teachers can encounter fuller possibilities for who they are allowed to become—and where representation, boundaries, culture, and joy can exist alongside one another. Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

  8. Sep 10

    A Pride Flag Isn’t Enough Here's What Queer Students Actually Need | Ep. 220 (with Zsofia Leary)

    Zsofia Leary knows what it means to move through a school system where queer identities are rarely acknowledged—and what it can mean when educators choose to create something different. An MPA student at NYU Wagner, advocate, former music teacher, and queer person raised in Indiana, Zsofia joins Bryan to talk about the connection between education policy, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and the everyday choices that help students feel safe and seen.  Their conversation explores the difference between visible signs of support and meaningful allyship, including why a Pride flag or inclusive book is only a beginning. Zsofia also shares insights from research with LGBTQ+ people who attended high school in Indiana, reflects on navigating restrictive education policies, and discusses the importance of community, cultural humility, and listening to what marginalized students actually say they need.  In this episode, you will: Explore why meaningful allyship requires action beyond symbols of inclusion, especially when students experience bullying, misgendering, or exclusion. Understand how restrictive education policies and school culture can shape queer students’ sense of safety, belonging, and representation. Consider how educators can build community by listening to marginalized students, intervening in harmful moments, and recognizing the impact even one supportive adult can have. Zsofia’s reminder that educators “have more impact than you think” speaks directly to the work of Queering Education: building schools where care, affirmation, and belonging are practiced rather than simply promised. This conversation invites educators to consider the choices they make each day—and how those choices can help a student know they are not alone. Support the show Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast centering LGBTQ+ educators and the real-world realities of teaching while queer. We explore queer representation in education, including burnout, tokenism, doxing, visibility, boundaries, and advocacy for inclusive classrooms, safe schools, and anti-bullying practices. This podcast supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, asexual, aromantic, agender, and two-spirit teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to reduce isolation, protect educators, and build community. Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me. Follow Teaching While Queer on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Keywords: Teaching While Queer, queer educators, LGBTQ teachers, inclusive education, gender identity in schools, safe classrooms, anti-bullying strategies, educator burnout, LGBTQ advocacy, queer visibility in education

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5
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21 Ratings

About

Queering Education is a Teaching While Queer podcast about LGBTQ inclusive teaching, queer pedagogy, and building authentic, affirming classrooms. Hosted by Bryan Stanton, the show offers practical strategies for educators navigating real challenges in today’s classrooms—connecting theory to practice through conversations, storytelling, and actionable tools.. Each episode centers the lived experiences of queer educators and how they show up for their students, even in systems that weren’t built for them. Whether you’re a K–12 teacher, higher education faculty member, or school leader, you’ll find actionable ways to create affirming learning environments for LGBTQ students and beyond. Through solo episodes and conversations with educators, researchers, and advocates, Queering Education connects theory to practice—covering topics like queer curriculum, equity in education, classroom culture, and navigating policy and resistance in schools. If you’re asking:  How do I support LGBTQ students right now?  What does inclusive teaching actually look like in practice?  How do I show up authentically as an educator?  You’re in the right place. This is Queering Education, a Teaching While Queer podcast.

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