Walter Cassidy is a local high school teacher and instructor of the Teaching LGTBQ Students additional qualification course for teachers (PETER MARVAL/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
History tells us that the bigots never win.
That’s what gives Windsor high school teacher and Faculty of Education alumnus Walter Cassidy (BEd ’00) hope in the face of what seems like an uptick in anti-2SLGBTQIA+ sentiment.
“As long as we know our history and we know that we’ve been through this before, we’ll get through it,” Cassidy says. “We always do.”
Getting familiar with queer history is a major component of what Cassidy teaches as the instructor for the UWindsor Faculty of Education’s additional qualification (AQ) course Teaching LGBTQ Students.
The course, offered online and open to any registered teacher in Ontario, focuses on teaching elementary and secondary school teachers how to better support 2SLGBTQIA+ students, creating more inclusive classrooms and schools.
Having taught the course — which he also designed — for over a decade, Cassidy says that what surprised him early on was how little knowledge of queer history there was in each cohort.
“One of the things that blew me away was that people didn’t even know it was illegal to be gay in Canada at one point,” Cassidy says.
“There’s so much learning to be done.”
He says that even queer and trans teachers who enrol in the course tend to be shocked about how much they don’t know, especially about queer history in Canada.
This realization led Cassidy to ground the course content in history — looking back to look forward — as a way to contextualize other resources and pedagogical models.
This historical lens also allows him to put the current sociopolitical moment into perspective.
“I’m 56, and I was a teenager through the AIDS crisis,” Cassidy says.
“We’ve seen these moments before. This is not new. What is new is who they are focused on, but the rhetoric is never new.”
Over the years, Cassidy has also moved from focusing on queer history in bigger cities to including Windsor-specific material, which he had to track down himself during a research deep-dive during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
While the course is not only for those teaching and working in Windsor-Essex, this means that Windsor’s queer past is included alongside more widely shared histories from Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
This process of developing the course was personal for Cassidy, who got involved after guest presenting in another guidance-focused AQ course.
“One of the teachers of that course realized that she had taught me in high school,” says Cassidy. “Because I talked about how horrific school was back in the ’80s for me.”
“The Teaching LGBTQ Students course was just being offered by the Ontario College of Teachers at the time, so I was asked if I wanted to write it for UWindsor,” he explains.
“So that’s what I did.”
While the name refers to Teaching LGBTQ Students, Cassidy says it’s not entirely accurate as the focus is not so much on teaching queer students specifically but teaching all students about 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion.
“There are so many complexities, such as students not being out,” he says. “Why wouldn’t we teach this way to everyone?”
Whether in kindergarten or senior high school divisions, Cassidy tries to ensure that the course incorporates relevant materials and resources for all levels that teachers can put to work in practical ways in their classrooms.
His assignments also require those enrolled to get out into their communities and connect with local queer and trans organizations working with youth.
“I try to create that concept of connecting locally and expanding from there instead of the other way around,” Cassidy explains.
Another grounding principle is that the course content changes with the times.
“When the course first started, the conversation about trans representation and trans inclusion, the concept of pronouns, wasn’t something that education was talking about,” Cassidy says.
He notes that even teachers who had some understanding of these issues may have been working with outdated information, especially given how much language changes over time.
“People will think they’re being supportive, but their knowledge and language is still dated, so there’s a lot of learning and unlearning going on,” Cassidy says.
At the same time, he stresses that language and cultures within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community are themselves unique and diverse.
“It’s more communities than community,” he says.
“Each of the different communities is complex and culturally based, so having one voice speak for all is really problematic. It’s about having multiple voices from multiple perspectives.”
That means incorporating multimedia resources and materials from various communities around the world that teachers can draw from in their future lessons.
While the AQ course is only open to teachers, Cassidy says it would be valuable knowledge for anyone in education, especially front-line support staff who are working one-on-one with students who may be struggling to even show up to school.
“Everyone in education needs more of that knowledge that helps them better support the youth so they can have an experience that is authentic and feel seen and heard,” he says.
Part of this involves reflecting on the past and what it tells us about the future, including the queer community’s resilience in the face of backlash and oppression.
“They won’t win,” Cassidy says of those pushing back against queer rights and inclusion.
“They never do. History has shown us that. It’s just how long it takes to shift and how many people get hurt, unfortunately. In this time of difficulty, we have to move forward and just keep going.”
“I’m still hopeful.”
To learn more about Teaching LGBTQ Students or to register for the Fall term, visit the Continuing Teacher Education registration page.