Teachers urged to call out colleagues for bigoted language

Teachers have been urged to call out any misogynistic and homophobic comments they hear from colleagues as part of an effort to ensure the role becomes more inclusive and reflects the growing diversity of Irish society.

ASTI Deputy General Secretary, Diarmaid de Paor told the union’s annual convention in Cork that it was important that union members did not allow offensive remarks go unchallenged as they can cause huge upset and damage to teachers.

“I would implore people, yourselves or your colleagues in school just to be careful about the use of language - you still get people using misogynistic or homophobic language and they will say it’s only a bit of banter,” said Mr de Paor.

“But it’s not - it can be very very damaging and very hurtful to people, particularly if, for example, a gay teacher is thinking: ‘Will I or won’t I come out to my colleagues:?’ and one silly comment can make them think again.”

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“You all have a responsibility not only to not use such language but to call it out when you hear it and that’s the hard bit - which you have to do when you hear somebody and I’m not saying do it aggressively, take them aside and say ‘That’s not on’.”

Mr de Paor said the ASTI has a problem in its relationship with its LGBTQ+ members in that while it presses to have laws changed to ensure schools are welcoming places regardless of a teacher’s sexual preference or gender identity, it doesn’t know who its LGBTQ+ members are.

“We have over 18,000 members and it is therefore safe to assume that we have many hundreds of members (perhaps thousands) who are Lesbian or Gay or who do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth (or with any gender).

“But, any attempt to reach out to these members is met with near total silence. This silence tells us second-level teachers who do not conform to societal ‘norms’ in terms of sexuality or gender are still reluctant to come out in their school community - or even to their union.”

Poor response

Presenting the ASTI’s Equality Report, Mr de Paor said the union had conducted a survey to find out what it should be doing for its LGBTQ+ members but there was a poor response which suggested the union was not going about it in the right way.

“We would love to establish a vibrant and active LGBTQ+ teachers’ group within the ASTI. If such a group were established, we would be very diligent in maintaining confidentiality in relation to participants in its activities.

“We want to create an education system in Ireland where every teacher and student can feel happy and comfortable in who they are. No teacher, whatever their race, religious beliefs, gender, sexuality or disability should feel ashamed or afraid.”

Mr de Paor commended Dublin North West delegate, Daniel Howard for openly stating that he was a gay teacher when proposing a motion calling for greater protection for teachers against sexual assault, homophobic bullying and online abuse.

“I have been coming to convention after convention and I’m sure that there any many people who are gay, or lesbian or trans but I can’t remember anyone else getting up and acknowledging that they are an openly gay teacher and the more we hear that , the better.

“We need a more diversified teaching profession- we need gay students to see gay teachers, we need black students to see black teachers, we need working class students to see working class teachers and that is part of what we are talking about in this equality report.”

Mr de Paor’s comments were echoed by delegate Christopher Davey from Carlow, who said that, as a white, middle class male, he and others were not always necessarily representative of the students that they were teaching as students now can come from diverse backgrounds.

“I would like to see the union establish some sort of scholarship fund to promote minority teachers to get them into the classroom,” he said.

“The reality is that we, as teachers, are a very specific subset of society and I think we as a union need to proactively challenge financially the view that teachers are not all coming from the same subset of middle class people.”

Earlier, Mary Lyndon of the Roscrea Branch called for introduction of menopausal leave for women as the menopause can have a hugely debilitating effect on women physically, mentally and emotionally and it can no longer “be swept under the carpet” as it once was.

Ms Lyndon instanced the recent decision by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to introduce menopausal leave for thousands of women working in London including allowing them time off to attend menopausal medical appointments and suitable working adaptations.

She also commended Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly for establishing menopausal clinics around the country as well as menopause training in the civil service.

“Now that the genie is escaping from the bottle - it has not gone out fully - it is time that we, men and women, talked more openly, lifted the lid, got rid of the taboos and educated ourselves and listened where appropriate,” she said.

“Out with euphemisms like ‘extenuating circumstances’, ‘migraine’, ‘kidney infections’ and in with the language of empathy, understanding, reassurance and respect,” she concluded to loud applause.