Reframing Gender-Inclusive Language in German Education: Politics, Pedagogy, and Possibilities

Abstract

Recently in Germany the question of gender-inclusive language has become another front in the culture wars. Headlines portray these linguistic innovations as disruptive and unnecessary while politicians across Germany have moved to ban or restrict certain types of inclusive language. In this research article, I analyze the representations of gender-inclusive language from political parties and language organizations within Germany, as well as linguistic innovations from nonbinary and queer individuals and grassroots groups. I contrast these discussions in the press and the political arena in Germany with more inclusive perspectives and approaches from the pedagogical world of teaching German outside of Germany. I will discuss how German teachers and researchers like myself approach gender diversity and introduce alternative conceptual frameworks for understanding the relationship between gender and language, including Kris Knisely and Joshua Paiz's concept of queer inquiry-based pedagogies (QIBPs), Yuliya Komska, Michelle Moyd and David Gramling's Linguistic Disobedience (2019), intercultural competence, and culturally responsive pedagogy. These alternative understandings of language, power, and gender show how the language classroom can be seen not as a site for the dissemination of the linguistic and cultural norms of the source culture but instead as a space of encounter, where issues such as gender can be investigated and negotiated.