Let’s talk about sex: instructor views and hesitancies related to sex and gender in the biology classroom

Abstract

There is much current debate in the US regarding how sex and gender are approached in science and medical classrooms. There does not seem to be sufficient consensus around why it must be taught and how it should be implemented. State-enacted restrictions to both education and healthcare in recent years demonstrate the relevance and importance of sex and gender in the college classroom, not only including but especially in the biology classroom. Given the areas comprising the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), these topics of sex and gender in biology instruction are incredibly salient to our members. Thus, this survey aimed to determine instructors’ views of and experiences with sex-diverse gender-inclusive biology. College-level biology instructors who are members of SICB were surveyed about their views of science, views of sex and gender, teaching philosophy, and their experiences with inclusive teaching and with sex-diverse gender-inclusive teaching. The resulting data lead us to implore academic biology to provide more sex-diverse and gender-inclusive teaching tools and resources to educators, while minimizing potential fear of retaliation and backlash to instructors who utilize these teaching methods.

Breanna Harris, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

I am a behavioral endocrinologist studying how organisms physiologically and behaviorally respond to and cope with challenges (stressors).