Absent, At Risk, As If, Affirming: A Thematic Transgender Content Analysis of Teacher Education Textbooks

• In Event: 56.080 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 56.080-3 - Creative Approaches to Teacher Preparation and Praxis

Abstract

Teacher preparation programs are in a unique position to influence future teachers’ supportiveness toward transgender and LGBQ students and to emphasize the importance of LGBT-inclusive curricula. The intent of this study is to provide a more in-depth consideration of issues unique to transgender individuals and how these issues are (or are not) taken up within contemporary teacher education textbooks. Four themes emerged from the data: Absent, At Risk, As If, and Affirming. The majority of the texts analyzed provided an essentialist, binary perspective on the gender, while only two texts reflected affirming representations of transgender identity. This analysis may prove to be useful to both teachers and teacher educators in considering their own course texts.

Author

• Eli Kean, Michigan State University