Navigating Terrain: Parents' Talk About Advocating for Their Gender- and Sexuality-Diverse Children at School

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

Abstract

Objectives or purposes

Australian schools are highly heteronormative and conservative spaces where teachers fear broaching issues related to gender and sexuality diversity for fear of parental backlash or public outcry; yet, gender and sexuality diversity is a crucial social justice issue and recognised human right requiring representation in the curriculum (UNESCO, 2018). Little Australian research has examined the experiences of parents/carers of gender and sexuality-diverse (GSD) children and how they navigate their child’s schooling experience in a climate of institutionally-imposed silences. This paper draws from the authors’ ongoing engagement with this cohort to understand their complex experiences and inform relevant policy shifts and enactment in this area.

Perspectives or theoretical framework

We draw on the theoretical work of Foucault (1978), with particular reference to concepts of discourse, knowledge, power, subjectivity and their intersections. In Australian schools, an expectation of education is to produce heterosexual subjects who will fulfil the neoliberal market demand for a socially-conforming workforce (Griffin, 2007). Given this framing, issues of social justice and equity can be framed as extra, superfluous and irrelevant (Connell, 2013). Furthermore, given the potentially damaging impact of GSD inclusivity to a school’s market reputation, in part due to the discourses of childhood naivety and vulnerability which obstruct such inclusions, GSD topics are likely invisible and marginalised in schooling. Accordingly, silence and invisibility of gender and sexuality diversity remains the norm, producing a potentially difficult, and sometimes impenetrable, climate for parents/carers of GSD children to navigate.

Methods and data sources

This paper reports from ongoing engagement with parents around GSD subjectivities in schooling. Specifically, it draws from analysis of interview data from two periods of data collection: the first of which broadly recruited parents of school-aged children and the second of which (forthcoming) will focus specifically on parents/carers of GSD school-age children attending public schools. In our face-to-face interviews we use a combination of semi-structured techniques and narrative design to understand participants’ experiences of navigating the educational terrain for their child(ren) and employ thematic analysis to understand the discourses operating in participant experiences.

Results

Initial explorations with 22 parents of school-aged children highlighted the divide between formal school silences surrounding GSD topics and the proliferation of informal GSD-‘inclusions’ in student peer cultures. Namely, suspected GSD identities marked students, or in some cases their parents, as ‘other’, leading to social and educational marginalisation by both peers and educators. These findings have informed and shaped our forthcoming engagement with parents/carers of GSD children. Specifically, questions of visibility, access and collaboration are central to our enquiry.

Scholarly significance of the study

Curriculum and policy development in terms of GSD content in/exclusions is uninformed, haphazard and reactionary in Australia. Ongoing investigation into the experiences of parents/carers of GSD children and how they negotiate and engage with schools to support their child is critical to support visibility and equitable student access and outcomes.

Authors

• Tania Ferfolja, University of Western Sydney

• Jacqueline Ullman, University of Western Sydney, Australia