Transitioning at School: Teacher Allyship

• In Event: 28.048 - LGBTQ and Allied Parents Speak Out About Their Experiences at School

Abstract

Objectives or purposes

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways two teachers and one community health educator have worked as allies of transgender students and transgender parents who are transitioning at school in Ontario, Canada.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Allyship has been described as (1) actively using resources and privilege to support communities experiencing oppression or exploitation; being empathetic; (2) always learning and not being complacent about what one thinks one knows, and (3) as an oxymoron that involves compromises on the part of the person who is receiving the allyship (Watson, 2017). These ideas will be used to analyse the allyship work of two teachers and a community health educator.

Methods and data sources

The stories of the work of the teachers and community health educator were obtained in video and audio interviews with a parent of a transgender daughter who transitioned in grade one; a parent (assigned female at birth) who transitioned at his children’s elementary school, and a transgender boy who transitioned in high school. The interviews are available at the project’s website for new and experienced teachers and principals to access and learn from.

Results

Examples of teacher and principal allyship include supporting a transgender student’s request to wear a dress at school and making a school counsellor available to teachers so transitioning students aren’t the only ones answering questions about their transition. When school teachers and principals refuse to support their transgender students (despite government and school board policies which require them to do so), community health educators can provide allyship by providing a space for LGBTQ children and youth to meet, network, and advocate together. Yet, while supportive teachers, counsellors, and community health educators are incredibly important to students who transition at school, the work of individual allies is not as pedagogically powerful as creating school-wide curriculum which teaches all children there are many ways for them to express their gender.

Scholarly significance of the study or work

Families with transgender children who transition in school deal with issues such as: (1) securing acceptance and support from the teachers and principals (2) verbal and physical harassment and (3) internalized transphobia related to being marginalized (Authors 2018; Taylor et al. 2011). To date, very little research has examined the ways teachers and principals can work as allies of transgender children, youth, and parents in school. Our current video interview research addresses this lack of research and resonates with the conference call to share research findings through multiple modalities, including video and audio representation.

References
Authors. (2018). Transitioning in elementary school: Parental advocacy and teacher allyship. Teaching Education Journal 29(2):165-177.

Taylor, C. & Peter, T., with McMinn, T.L., Elliott, T., Beldom, S., Ferry, A., Gross, Z., Paquin, S., and Schachter, K. (2011). Every Class in Every School: The First National Climate Survey on Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia in Canadian Schools. Final report. Toronto, ON: EGALE Canada Human Rights Trust. Accessed online August 30, 2013.

Watson, R. (Producer) (2017.) “Safety-Pin Solidarity: With Allies, Who Benefits?” (March 8, 2017).http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/

Authors

• Tara Goldstein, OISE/University of Toronto

• Austen Koecher, University of Toronto

• Kate Reid, University of Toronto