Changing the Frame: Queering Access to Higher Education for Trans* Students

• In Event: 72.056 - Unruly Queers: Interrogating Power in Higher Education Practice, Policy, and Research

Abstract

Paper purpose

The purpose of this paper is to name existing barriers to college access for trans* individuals and communities, and to advance an agenda of increasing access to both two and four-year colleges for this greatly underserved population. Current estimates suggest that as much as 2% of the US population identifies in the trans* spectrum, yet mass sample higher education survey developers have resisted adding trans* identities to their instruments. Trans* individuals are disproportionately affected by poverty and underemployment (Movement advancement project, 2013), signaling a continuing lack of access and persistence within post-secondary education.

Perspective or theoretical framework

The theoretical framework shaping this examination is avowedly queer. In place of the question, ‘how can trans* individuals be successful given higher educations’ norms and expectations,’ Scholar B interrogated how current conventions associated with college preparation and access reify static and binary conceptions of gender and thereby undermine trans* access and mobility. As Meiners (1998) noted, queer theories can be employed to ask “whose mobility is facilitated and whose is fixed.” Borrowing from feminist theorists’ assertions that higher education must itself be transformed in order to be truly inclusive of marginalized populations (Collins, 2000; Ng, 1993) Scholar B unearths the ubiquity of genderism (Hill, 2003) and the normative practices related to college access that inhibit trans* access. Strategies for increasing trans* college access, derived from four decades of college access research for other underserved groups (e.g., Bragg & Barnett, 2006; George & Aronson, 2003; Martinez & Klopott, 2003) will be advanced.

Data sources, evidence, and modes of inquiry

Four specific junctures in a US student’s educational path to college will be analyzed in this essay: The high school college guidance process, the college application process, college matriculation, and college persistence. Each juncture will be described and examined for evidence of genderism (Hill, 2003) in order to pinpoint opportunities for queer analysis, reframing, and reformation of norms and practices.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

Six critical moments (Ridley, 2004) serve as opportunities to improve trans* youth matriculation and persistence, in higher education. These include: 1) Pre-matriculation assessment of college climate for trans* youth and adults, 2) counselors’ capacity for trans* inclusive college advising, 3) reformation of college application conventions; 4) institutional capacity for critical assessment of genderist practices, 5) institutional capacity for transformation of genderist practices, and 6) institutional capacity to provide trans* inclusive student cultures.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

Critical and queer scholars have shifted discourses on college access in the last decade from analyses of ‘student readiness and ability’ to transformation of institutional norms and practices that undermine inclusion of those least well-served (Kumashiro, 2002; Pinar, 2009; Quinlivan & Town, 2010). This paper extends notions of queer educational practice to trans* individual and community access to higher education, toward correcting injustices wrought by 300+ years of genderism in US higher education.

Author

• Susan Marine, Merrimack College