Research Publications

Now Online: Advancing Equitable Education with Intersectional Approaches in Queer Theory

| Dylan Paré
Word Cloud of Key Words from Advancing Equitable Education with Intersectional Approaches in Queer Theory

Shrodes, A. & Paré, D. (2022). Advancing equitable education with intersectional approaches in queer theory. Rapid Community Report Series: Anti-racist Approaches in the Learning Sciences. Digital Promise and the International Society of the Learning Sciences.

https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/7667

Addie Shrodes and I were grateful to be invited by Digital Promise, the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), and the Center for Integrative Research in Computing and Learning Sciences (CIRCLS) to develop a primer on advancing the equitable study and design of learning through intersectional approaches in queer theory.

Alongside queer, intersectional theories, we review queer learning sciences scholarship. We appreciated the opportunity to think through this emerging area of work and hope this piece may be useful for LS teaching and learning.

And we’re grateful to Dr. Suraj Uttamchandani for being a continued thought partner in developing intersectional queer approaches in the learning sciences.

(Above introduction is from Dr. Addie Shrodes original Twitter thread)

Abstract

Intersectional queer theory is an orienting frame assembling traditions of thought that consider gender and sexuality at the intersection of other identities and structures. We consider intersectional queer theory through scholarship on queer of color critique, queer Indigenous and Two-Spirit theorizing, and queer disability studies. Using these frames, educators and researchers can design and study learning environments that affirm learners across marginalized identities and examine how interlocking power structures (re)produce dominant and subordinate relations.

Now Online: Extending “othered” bodies into learning environments: Queer reorientations, virtual reality, and learning about gender and sexuality

| Dylan Paré
Word Cloud of Key Words from Extending “othered” bodies into learning environments: Queer reorientations, virtual reality, and learning about marginalization.

Paré, D. (2022). Extending “othered” bodies into learning environments: Queer reorientations, virtual reality, and learning about marginalization. In C. Chinn, E. Tan, C. Chan, & Y. Kali (Eds.). Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS2022, (pp. 543-550). Hiroshima, Japan: International Society of the Learning Sciences.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360994787_Extending_othered_bodies_into_learning_environments_Queer_reorientations_virtual_reality_and_learning_about_gender_and_sexuality

I presented this paper at the 2022 International Conference of the Learning Sciences this past June. The conference was going to be in Hiroshima, Japan but had to move online due to Covid travel and large meeting safety precautions. It was the right choice, but I was disappointed to not be travelling to Japan. I enjoyed presenting the paper to my colleagues and look forward to further developing this paper with additional cases.

Abstract

In this paper, I illustrate how interacting with an immersive, virtual reality (VR) experience designed with queer phenomenological approaches can deepen understandings of gender and sexuality. I show how extending the queer phenomenological concept of reorientations (Ahmed, 2006) with complementary theories of ideological stance-taking (Philip et al., 2017) and emotional configurations (Vea, 2020) can highlight moments of emotional-ideological sense-making practices where learners become reoriented by reflexively negotiating between themselves and “othered” objects and people. I present an interactive, branching narrative told in immersive VR, in which the player uncovers the narrator’s memories of gender and sexuality-based marginalizations in STEM learning environments. I then present illustrative cases from an ongoing design study. Analysis of the VR interactions reveals how participants used the narrative and virtual objects to recognize normative orientations to STEM and reorient toward counter-hegemonic actions and marginalized people.