An interview with Adjua Lafleur
By Amy Moran, Ph.D. and Kate Okeson
With seven years in education, currently teaching college preparatory biology at Washington Township High School, Adjua Lafleur is Gloucester County’s representative on the NJEA Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Committee.
What brought you to the SOGI Committee, and why do you do this work?
I honestly didn’t know about SOGI until the 2021 NJEA Convention. SOGI held a brunch and I learned there was an opening for my county. My county association president said I’d be perfect for the committee. I do this work because oftentimes the voices of the BIPOC people within the LGBTQ community are left unheard and ignored. Living with intersectional identities is hard because you have to deal with people in your marginalized communities ignoring your existence and issues. Dealing with racism and anti-Blackness within the LGBTQ community and homophobia/transphobia within the Black community is a hurtful experience that often makes people feel isolated within their own communities. So it is important that people with intersectional identities are represented within this work.
What do you do to support an intersectional approach to education?
I try my best to make any school environment where I may be present an inviting one that takes all walks of life into consideration. This could mean hanging up a variety of posters in the classroom, talking to students individually about what would make them feel affirmed during class, addressing and correcting prejudiced behavior, teaching about the contribution of marginalized groups within your content area, and so on. The most important thing to me is how a student feels in my class, and if they feel uncomfortable, it is my job to help change that environment.
What do you think students gain from racial, gender/sexuality, and other identities being visible in the classroom?
They gain a view of the world. Every person is different. We all have different cultures, racial identities, gender identities, ability levels and so forth. We do ourselves a disservice when we are only around people who resemble ourselves. There’s so much beauty in learning about other peoples’ experiences, and learning about other peoples’ perspectives allow us to learn more about ourselves as well.
What’s the future of representative curricula for your content area, in New Jersey and nationwide?
So many people of different life experiences have contributed greatly to the area of biological science. I think it’s time we hear the names like Alice Augusta Ball (African American woman and pharmaceutical chemist, 1892-1916), Patricia Bath (African American woman and ophthalmology pioneer, 1942-2019), Alan Hart (transgender physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer, and novelist, 1890-1962) and Venkatraman ‘Venki’ Ramakrishnan (Indian-born British and American structural biologist who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, born 1952) alongside names like Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel. Biological science contributions come from more than white cis heterosexual men and it’s time we communicate that to our students.
Representative curricula
Adjua makes it clear why curricula should be representative in all content areas.
Why is equity in science and all other content areas critical? Because it is imperative that we redirect our attention from occasional “heroes and holidays” approaches and invest our educational resources in serious discussions about who is learning whose histories and contributions, and what has accounted for the persistence of racial, gender-based, and all other inequities in our schools, communities and society at large. Further, it is a call to remember important impacts:
- The more we read and see comprehensive and inclusive histories and contributions, the more opportunity we create to have serious discussions about inequity.
- To stop limiting the representations to those focused only on stories of suffering, and refocus on resistance, liberation and joy.
Representation creates moments and places for teachers and students to feel courageous and powerful precisely because of who they are.