Is This the Right Elementary School for My Gender Nonconforming Child?

Can policies help schools affirm gender diversity? A policy archaeology of transgender-inclusive policies in California schools

“…On the other hand, having these components spelled out in policy may provide some political capital to push for better supports to offer more professional learning opportunities in order to be more fully ready to welcome transgender and non-binary students by sharing publicly some of the ways in which this school culture is shifting in order to be more fully inclusive of gender diversity. Other research in this area indicates that families with transgender students often bear a very large burden when they are the first family in a school or district to advocate for the needs of their child (Meyer, Tilland-Stafford, and Airton 2016;Slesaransky-Poe et al 2013;Meyer and Leonardi 2017). When schools work to disrupt the social regularities that create barriers for transgender youth such as organizing facilities, activities, and rituals based on the gender binary and the heterosexual matrix, it may serve to reduce the number of individual "accommodations" made necessary by a constrictive system, and simultaneously remove barriers for all students, not only those who identify themselves as transgender.…”

“…In other words, these policies largely task children with leading the process for solving a set of problems that they did not create. There is an emerging body of work beginning to study the experiences and issues faced by transgender, non-binary, and gender-creative students in schools (Ehrensaft 2014;Martino and Cumming-Potvin 2014;Meyer and Pullen Sansfacon 2014;Slesaransky-Poe et al 2013;Beemyn 2015). However, existing policy has largely been designed without a deep analysis of the layered conditions that shape how schools give meaning to trans and non-binary gender.…”

The capacity of South Australian primary school teachers and pre-service teachers to work with trans and gender diverse students

“…At the primary/elementary school level, research has documented high levels of bullying by other children (alongside a common lack of attention to trans and gender diverse children in school anti-bullying policies), lack of understanding and support from school staff, and exclusion in the form of rules relating to gendersegregated bathroom use, school uniforms, and sports participation (Johnson, Sikorski, Savage, & Woitaszewski, 2014;Kuvalanka, Weiner, & Mahan, 2014;Pullen Sansfaçon, Robichaud, & Dumais-Michaud, 2015). Several studies have, however, highlighted the important role that educators can play in facilitating supportive school cultures (Luecke, 2011;Slesaransky-Poe, Ruzzi, Dimedio, & Stanley, 2013). Jones (2015) further suggests that supportive policies can help teachers create school cultures which are affirming for trans and gender diverse students.…”

Beyond ‘safety’: teachers and school staff approaches to LGBTI-inclusion in Tasmanian schools

“…A significant body of LGBTI education research focuses on student experiences, with several studies highlighting the important role that educators can play in facilitating supportive school cultures (Luecke 2011;Slesaransky-Poe et al 2013). Ferfolja and Robinson (2004, 10) argue that "teachers have a professional, moral and legal obligation to intervene in discrimination based on sexual orientation and to promote critical understandings of difference throughout all stages of education."…”