School Bathrooms and the Public Imagination

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Conversations on the Social Context of Educational Policy

Abstract

This year’s AERA call for proposals asks us to consider what could happen if educational researchers committed to partnering with organizational stakeholders to examine “critical topical areas of unsolved educational problems that dominate the public interest…to imagine new possibilities in research and educational practices.” School bathrooms are one of these critical areas in need of such a partnership, both in creating policy and contributing to the public imagination. This paper attempts to highlight that need by examining the history of school bathrooms, and then juxtaposing that history with the current discourse surrounding school bathrooms in social media and the news.

Author

• Kristidel McGregor, University of Oregon