A Starting Point: Gender, Hot Cognition, and Trans-Informed Administrative Guidance

Abstract

Trans-informed administrative guidance introduces concepts from trans studies to educational leaders, but researchers have relatively ignored these policy implementation tools. This content analysis describes the design of administrative guidance using a representative sample of 112 Illinois districts: the who, what, how, and why of supporting transgender students. The results substantiated evidence of trans-informed guidance that introduced complex gender “definitions” and legitimized students’ identity. Many of these same texts also included barriers to supporting students with administrative gatekeeping, definitions reinforcing the gender binary, and mandates to involve parents in access decisions. All but one district (96%) highlighted existing state and local policies to motivate administrative actions around 13 issues. A minority of the texts provided specific directions to guide decision-making and reform efforts. This paper includes areas of concern and suggestions as policymakers initiate gender reforms.

LGBTQ+-Inclusive Professional Development in Elementary Schools: Does It Matter to Schoolwide Discipline?

“…The authors explain how these legal protections could extend beyond the protection of transgender and gender nonconforming people, since all people have a gender expression. Airton et al (2019) and McQuillan (2022) expand this argument further in their descriptions of administrative guidance documents concerning transgender students in Canada and the United States, respectively. The authors illustrate how policymakers provide more nuanced understandings of gender to educators that also extend to all students' gender nonconforming expression, although protecting transgender students is the stated goal of the policy implementation documents.…”

“…In other words, the teacher training sessions focused on content delivery and developing new skills should be only one component of an intensive effort to reform cis- and heteronormative policies, procedures, practices, and beliefs in schools. A commitment to long-term, broad-reaching IPD programs should be aligned with several reform tools, such as protective policies and administrative guidance concerning transgender students (McQuillan, 2022), to prompt a continuous cycle of learning.…”

“…These social experiences may have academic repercussions. When students with marginalized identities encounter hostile environments, they experience physical stress (McQuillan et al, 2021; Hatzenbuehler et al, 2013; Meyer, 1995), which impedes their ability to learn (Hammond, 2014). LGBTQ + students who report higher bullying levels also indicate they miss more school, have lower GPAs, higher rates of depression, more discipline at school, and lower academic aspirations.…”

The Disruptive Power of Policy Erasure: How State Legislators and School Boards Fail to Take up Trans-affirming Policies While Leaning into Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies

“…While educational law and policy cannot be the only reform efforts and legislation, Lewis and Kern (2018), Meyer and Leonardi (2020), Mayo (2022), andMcQuillan (2021) posit that LGBTQ + laws and policy can be used as an effective tool to start gender-and sexual-diversity reforms. Legal and policy reforms work best when paired with LGBTQ + -community and student-centered reform processes (McQuillan, 2022;McQuillan & Mayo, 2023;Meyer, 2022). Gender-diversity reforms mandated through laws and policies will not be implemented without resources, organizational reforms, and accountability systems.…”

School Leaders and Transphobia: Direct, Facilitative, Accommodative, and Resistant Forms of Gender-Based Bias and Bullying

“…This support will be critical to leaders’ understanding of how their words and actions perpetuate bias. Because too little information to counter existing social beliefs can lead to greater resistance to educational reforms (McQuillan, 2022; Spillane et al, 2002), support for leaders attempting to change the structural forces that result in gender-based bullying needs to be sustained and reach multiple kinds of educational stakeholders (e.g., parents, teachers, staff, school board members; Desimone, 2009; McQuillan et al, 2023a). Professional development should introduce foundational gender concepts, strategies to identify bullying, time for reflection, and opportunities for active learning (Desimone, 2009; McQuillan et al, 2023b; McQuillan & Leininger, 2021).…”