Addressing Transgender Equality and Gender Diversity in the Western Australian Education System: A Policy Analysis

• In Event: 29.072 - Policies and Practices Affirming Transgender and Gender-Creative Students: Cases From Australia, Canada, and the United States

Abstract

1. Objectives and Purpose
In this paper, we are concerned to investigate policies and discourses that reference transgender equality and gender diversity, for there is no specific policy devoted to transgender and gender diversity. In WA, references to gender diversity are incorporated into anti-bullying policies and are iterated in the WA Equal Opportunity Commission’s (2013) guidelines for promoting learning environments free from discrimination based on gender, sexuality or intersex differences. Through an analysis of such policy informing texts and of the controversial Safe School Coalition’s attempt to implement a specific program, we draw attention to the interplay of progressive and conservative forces impacting on the education system’s commitment to transgender equality and gender diversity (Ryall, 2016). Given our interest in policy making and policy informing, we also provide a contextual analysis involving relevant media coverage as central to understanding trans focused policy articulations (Ball, 1990; Ozga, 2000).
2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
We draw on Rand’s (2009) gender complex framework as useful for investigating how discourses of gender diversity are framed in policy making and policy informed texts. This lens is informed through transgender studies as iterated by scholars such as Connell (2009; 2012) who elaborates a gender democratization committed to abolishing hierarchies, rather than gender per se. These insights enrich our analysis of transgender equality and gender diversity as articulated through policy making and policy informing.
3 Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
We combine Ball’s and Ozga’s approach to policy making and policy informing with trans informed theory to analyse how gender diversity and transgender inclusivity are iterated in various policy texts . In this sense, this paper provides a policy analysis that attends to the politics of textuality and specificity to deeper understand policy trajectories and processes for supporting transgender and gender diverse students.
Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Data sources include policy texts that address transgender equality and gender diversity, as well as media coverage of experiences of transgender students. Given the scarcity of policy texts in WA, documents produced by government organizations such as the SSC and the EOC will be juxtaposed with those disseminated by local community organizations, and with inter-state educational policies. Global comparisons with trans-specific and gender equality policies and practices will serve to enrich capacity for WA policy development.
5. Results and Scholarly significance of the study
There is paucity in the literature concerning the specifics of designing and implementing trans-infused curricula (DePalma, 2011; Martino & Cumming-Potvin, 2014; Ryan et al., 2013). With regards the experiences of trans students, there is an absence of WA policy specific to eliminating transphobia and promoting gender democratization. Executed in collaboration with local community, this study extends understandings about trans specific policies and practices, which are interwoven with anti-discriminatory legislation. Notwithstanding, the possibility of transforming policy (Ball, 1990) to incorporate a focus on diverse identities and embodied experiences of trans students will reside in bold negotiations across educational stakeholders.

Authors

• Wendy Marie Cumming-Potvin, Murdoch University

• Wayne J. Martino, The University of Western Ontario