Transgender Students Perceptions of School Sport

• In Event: 45.081 - Transforming Sport in Education: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Inclusion

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this paper was to explore factors that ‘affect’ gender diverse students decisions to participate in school-based sport. The authors draw on new materialism to identify factors that augment and/ or diminish transgender youth participation in sport.

Perspectives/ Theory

Previous research regarding transgender individuals describe prejudices, discrimination and violence faced because of their identity, including avoiding situations where they could be “outed,” such as gyms, clothing shops, or public restrooms (Ellis, Bailey, & McNeil, 2016; Mizock & Mueser, 2014). Participating in sport provides a multitude of benefits and these benefits may especially be important to transgender youth using sport to manage anxiety and depression, or maintain their weight prior to gender-confirming surgery (Jones et al., 2017).
In this paper, the authors adopt a new materialist (Fox & Alldred, 2017) lens to explore how assemblages (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) comprised of human and non-human bodies (e.g. students, policies, etc.) affect the ways in which transgender students participate in school-based sport.

Methods, Data Sources, and Analysis:

The following research paper is part of a larger critical ethnography (Thomas, 1993) exploring the role of health, physical activity, and education in LGBTQ youth. The larger project was comprised of 60 LGBTQ youth (aged 13-25) from a queer youth organization that partners with schools and communities in Auckland (New Zealand). This paper pays particular focus to experiences of 21 non-gender conforming students (e.g. transgender, non-binary, etc.) in relation to school sport. The data sources for this paper were informed by 3 group interviews (Fontana & Frey, 2005) and 7 semi-structured individual interviews (Creswell, 2013). Data from observations, ethnographic memos, or artifacts are not used but influenced the questions asked during interviews. Data were analyzed using two new materialist techniques: (a) dredging (Fox & Alldred, 2017) and (b) mapping (Ringrose & Coleman, 2013).

Findings:

Findings suggest three major impediments to the participation in school-based sport in New Zealand. The first impediment was a lack of ‘recreational’ sport. All schools offered highly competitive programs but failed to offer recreational sport for students who may not want to participate in high-stakes sporting environments. The second impediment was that social networks worked to make TransMasculine students feel inferior to cisgendered men. In other words, many transgender boys felt they would drag the competitiveness of the men’s team down if they played. The last impediment was the lack of explicit policies that provided guidance for transgender students. In other words, many students did not know their options for participating in sport and therefore did not feel comfortable signing up for a team.

Significance

This research provides novel evidence of how social networks work to ‘affect’ transgender participation in school sport. By identifying these factors, steps could be taken to remedy the above issues through policies, alternative programs, and professional development.

Authors

• Dillon Landi, University of Strathclyde

• Sara Barnard Flory, University of South Florida