Gender and Sexuality in Education Resources is now available as a free online pressbook (CANVA/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
How can teachers ensure inclusion in gendered languages like French? What can they do to address technology‑facilitated gender‑based violence? What would an intersectional feminist approach to teaching the history of prohibition look like?
These are among the questions that a new pressbook out of the Faculty of Education begins to answer with resources entirely created by teacher candidates.
The pressbook marks the culmination of Dr. Catherine Vanner’s inaugural pre-service education course in Gender and Sexuality in Education.
“One thing that has always frustrated me as an instructor is seeing the incredible work that teacher candidates produce in their assignments and feeling like it just stays with me,” says Vanner of the impetus to compile the e-book.
“They can use their work in their own future teaching, but nobody else gets to see and benefit from the work they have done.”
With this in mind, the e-book became a way to make the valuable work produced by teacher candidates accessible to educators across the profession.
Gender and Sexuality in Education Resources: For Teacher Candidates, By Teacher Candidates, edited by Vanner along with research assistants Jingxuan Li and Yan He, is now available via eCampusOntario’s Open Library.
Divided into two sections, the e-book compiles lesson plans and resources from second-year teacher candidates, beginning with a section consisting of “remixes” of existing lesson plans with a focus on inclusive and empowering approaches to gender and sexuality.
From drag in Shakespeare to gender in wartime propaganda, music videos and sex differentiation in science, these remixes help teachers of various subjects and levels empower students to think critically and inclusively.
The second section, entitled Guide and Inspire Resources, sees teacher candidates answering pressing questions their peers may have about gender and sexuality.
“We brainstormed on the second day of the course questions they had or that their peers have, and their task was to answer that question by collecting and creating resources to support new teachers who are less far along on their journey to be inclusive and empowering educators from a gender and sexuality perspective,” says Vanner.
With questions ranging from engaging with families on trans inclusivity, approaching gender and sexuality in Catholic school contexts and deciding whether to share one’s own gender identity or sexual orientation with students, teacher candidates also developed their own understanding throughout the term.
“We had a range of knowledge coming into the course,” explains Vanner.
“We had a really engaged group of students, some with really high prior knowledge, some who were just interested in the subject, and some who were maybe nervous about having to grapple with these subjects as a new teacher."
Vanner acknowledges the confusion that can surround gender issues, noting that such confusion is often intentionally manipulated to be divisive and to increase violence against women, girls and queer people.
At the same time, teacher candidates may be the ideal people to teach not only their future students but also practising teachers about gender.
“Sometimes teacher candidates, who tend to be younger, can have more of a grasp on evolving topics of gender than more established teachers,” Vanner says.
While the title may specify that the work is both by and for teacher candidates, Vanner emphasizes that any teacher can learn from the resources, noting that she herself learned from pre-service teachers in her course.
“It’s really a resource for any teacher who wants to get more knowledgeable about these issues and have resources they can use in their class,” Vanner says.
“What’s really important is to be able to foster critical thinking, both among the teachers and teacher candidates themselves, and to give them the skills to foster that among their students.”
In addition to publishing the e-book, teacher candidates also shared these resources at the Faculty of Education’s 2025 Electives Teaching Fair.
Vanner says that her students were excited to share their work with their peers and more broadly in the pressbook.
“There was a lot of pride and excitement,” she says of the publication.
“Once you put it out there, it is genuinely treated as a legitimate knowledge source and resource that other teachers and teacher candidates can pick up and use.”
Gender and Sexuality in Education Resources: For Teacher Candidates, By Teacher Candidates is available now for free online by visiting the Open Library website.