EXCLUSIVE: At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an introductory course for aspiring educators is drawing attention for its progressive approach. The course’s lecture materials, designed for first-year education majors, are infused with teachings on racial and sexual oppression, offering a perspective that some find controversial.
A concerned student, opting to remain anonymous, shared six weeks of lecture slides from Professor Gabriel Rodriguez’s EDUC 201 class with Fox News Digital. This course, titled “Identity and Difference in Education,” is part of the foundational curriculum for those pursuing a career in teaching at the university.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, the student remarked, “It’s quite clear that the course leans heavily liberal. From the very first class, the professor addressed how teaching is inherently political, implying a liberal stance is necessary.”
One of the presentation slides, dated November 11, 2025, reflects the university’s education curriculum. This particular lesson, part of the week 12 schedule, is focused on “Supporting LGBTQ+ Students in Schools,” highlighting the course’s emphasis on inclusivity and diversity.
The first slide of a Nov. 11, 2025, lesson at the University of Illinois. The lesson is part of the school’s education curriculum. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
The PowerPoint presentation for week 12 of the education course is titled, “Supporting LGBTQ+ Students in Schools.”
A slide called “Understanding the Current Landscape” cites the American Civil Liberties Union, a far-left activist group, making the claim that 2024 was a “record year for anti-LGBT+ legislation,” and that 18 bills were passed in 2018 that “curtailed students and/or educators rights.”
The same slide cites America’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), itself a left-wing organization, saying that LGBTQ+ students are more likely to face bullying and harassment.
The following slides feature screenshots from various news outlets, including PBS, The Washington Post and NBC, about certain legislation.
“LGBTQ+ Americans are under attack, Human Rights Campaign declares in state of emergency warning,” says a screenshot of a PBS headline on one of the slides. The Human Rights Campaign is a left-wing advocacy group for LGBT people.
Slide nine of the presentation makes a blunt admission.
“Remember: Schools are a part of a larger political system. As such, education, at its core is inherently political,” the slide says. “School is a political place because so many adults (e.g., educators, policymakers, parents) have a vested interest in the future generation.”
A slide from a Nov. 11, 2025, PowerPoint lecture at the University of Illinois. The lecture focused on teaching LGBT youth. (Obtained by Fox News Digital )
The presentation later cites data on mental health among LGBT people from the controversial Trevor Project, a self-described suicide prevention organization for LGBT youth, which has come under fire for its TrevorSpace program. That program has been critiqued by opponents for lacking age verification parameters, meaning that potentially vulnerable minors as young as 13 seeking support can freely be connected to adults for friendships and advice.
“LGBTQ+ students are facing unprecedented attacks and educators can play an important role in not just affirming who they are but advocating for and alongside them,” says another slide. “How are you demonstrating allyship and solidarity?”
Another slide encourages the use of preferred pronouns and embracing “diverse and intersectional LGBTQ+ experiences.”
A PowerPoint from a November 2025 education lesson at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents parental notification of LGBT curriculum taught to minors as restrictive. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
The end of the presentation is geared toward queer and transgender teachers, and features quotes from a letter to those teachers written by Harper Keenan, a professor of gender and sexuality research at the University of British Columbia.
“Those who now call themselves queer and trans people have been teaching the world since before those words even existed – the acceleration of queer language development and reclamation over the last century is but one example. You have important knowledge to bring to the work of education,” says a quote attributed to Keenan.
The Illinois student slammed the school’s teaching on gender, saying the university preaches ideas like “gender assigned at birth,” instead of recognizing binary sex, and places an emphasis on not assuming gender.
“They really want you to use pronouns. That’s a big thing. You can’t assume gender. You have to ask for pronouns,” the student said.
But the student has a moral objection to teaching children that they can be born in the wrong body.
“I just think to push that on young children is just so wrong,” the student said. “To tell little kids who don’t know much about the world – when you’re a kid, you’re growing and going through all these changes. I guess they need to be reaffirmed in their biology and not reaffirmed in their delusion.”
The University of Illinois offers teaching and research programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to over 56,000 students. (Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“Like you’re not supposed to just tell a little girl who’s maybe insecure, ‘Oh, like go be a boy,’ or tell a boy who, again, maybe is insecure or has some things that are considered feminine, to go be a girl,” the student said.
Week five slides from the course focused on racial identity. The lesson is titled “Embracing Asset-Based Practices.”
“What does it mean to help students understand their privileged identities?” one question asks.
“What does it mean to help students understand and embrace their minoritized identities?” asks another.
A chunk of that week’s lesson focuses on “equity and justice,” and specifically rejects the idea of teaching best practices in favor of a less rigid strategy.
Quoting a 2010 paper by Boston College education professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith titled “Toward a theory of teacher education for social justice,” one slide in the presentation defines what justice in teaching means.
“A theory of teaching practice that supports justice is not about specific techniques or best practices, but about guiding principles that play out in a variety of methods and strategies, depending on the particular circumstances, students, content, and communities,” says the quote from Cochran-Smith.
Another slide, quoting a different educator, encourages future teachers to “recreate and reinvent teaching methods and materials by always taking into consideration the sociocultural realities that can either limit or expand the possibilities to humanize education.”
A slide describing “opportunity gaps” says “opportunity and achievement are different things.”
“Shifts focus away from student outputs (e.g., grades, testing scores) to inputs (e.g., resources),” the slide instructs the education students.
A slide on “opportunity gaps” in education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The slides are part of a 2025 first semester education course. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
“Thinking in terms of ‘achievement gaps’ emphasizes the symptoms; thinking about unequal opportunity highlights the causes,” says a quote attributed to Prudence Carter and Kevin Welner in their 2013 book “Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance.”
A final takeaway from the lesson: “Strive for equity and justice.”
“There’s the gender, the LGBTQ+, and also critical race theory is a big thing here,” the student said.
The student said Rodriguez has at times lashed out over the Trump administration’s anti-DEI policies.
“My professor will sometimes put, like, headlines in his slides and be like, ‘Look how wrong this is, look at these people trying to silence, you know, everything.’ And a lot of times it’s headlines about Trump. So, of course, there was stuff about a DEI being taken out,” the student said, adding later that Fox News stories are often portrayed in a negative light.
Once again, the student focused on the curriculum being pushed on future educators, and how that will impact children in the classroom in the not-so-distant future.
“People need to see the side of the liberal party,” the student said. “Parents need to know this is how far they’re going, like they’re going so far to push their agenda on children. And I don’t even know for what, like a little bit of political gain? They’re literally willing to hinder a child’s education.”
“They’re going to be pointing at your White child and call them an aggressor, or they’ll point at your Black child and convince them they’re a victim. People get mad at this but [children] don’t see color. Children don’t think like that. They don’t have any sort of biases. Nobody’s born with a bias against someone. Children genuinely just don’t see that.”
A slide from a first semester 2025 education course at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign discusses “privileged identities” and “minoritized identities.” (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
In a lengthy statement, a spokesperson for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, home to about 56,000 students, told Fox News Digital that it “complies with all applicable federal and state laws governing equal access and nondiscrimination in its programs and activities, including classroom instruction.”
The statement also provided more details on the course and its goals.
“This course, Identity and Difference in Education, (EDUC 201) examines how identity, power and privilege impact equity in education, focusing on socially constructed identities and asset-based frameworks,” it said. “Understanding differences in identities is important to improve educational outcomes for all students.”
“The college and university approve programs of study and curricular requirements while instructors have freedom to create syllabi and slides that accomplish the course objectives using their expertise in the subject area. Questioning ideas, posing alternative opinions and presenting different perspectives is how we create knowledge and help everyone to have more meaningful engagement with the world around them.”
Rodriguez did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Click here to view the entire LGBT lecture PowerPoint:
Click here to view the entire “Embracing Asset-Based Practices” lecture PowerPoint:
