Supporting Transgender Students in Time of Distance Learning: A Web of Efforts

• In Event: COVID Lessons: What the Pandemic Is Teaching Us About Teacher Innovation, Collaboration, and Leadership

Abstract

Supporting Transgender Students in time of Distance Learning: A Web of Efforts

Purposes
Research has identified that transgender students are one of the most vulnerable populations in school settings (Johns, 2017; Kosciw, 2018; Toomey, 2013). As school districts shifted the provision of education to distance/remote platforms, several organizations such as The Trevor Project drew attention to the need for special considerations when supporting these students. This paper presents a case study of a district where distance learning technology being used during the pandemic interacted with district record keeping systems resulting in the repeated use of students’ deadnames, the names that the students were given at birth and which they no longer want to use, This case study highlights how teachers identified this problem and collaboratively with administration came up with solutions.

Theoretical Framework  
The study draws on the teacher practical knowledge literature, which positions teachers’ experience as a source of knowledge valuable to other practitioners and policymakers (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2010; 2015; Clandinin, Caine, & Lessard, 2018; Clandinin, 2019; Craig, 2018; Elbaz, 2018; Rosiek & Clandinin, 2016).  Along with other researchers, this paper maintains that teachers are uniquely positioned to understand the challenges experienced by transgender students during the COVID-19 pandemic (Dessel, 2017; Joyce, 2015; Vega, 2012). Additionally, the study is grounded in an understanding that teachers practice in an ecosystem of agencies and ideologies. The study asks: (1) What are teacher-identified challenges in supporting trans students during the pandemic? (2) How is knowledge regarding these challenges acted upon and circulated by teachers? (3) How did this districts’ policies support teachers’ advocacy for transgender students?

Data Sources and Methods
This study involved twelve interviews with teachers, counselors, school district and state department of education administrators. The interviews were conducted using Zoom video meeting software and transcribed using Zoom and Otter.ai transcription software. The data set was analyzed to better understand what the district had done prior to the pandemic to set up policies and practices to support transgender students and how these policies enabled teachers to quickly move their insights about trans students’ needs to individual and institutional action. The study was also informed by my experiences as an out transgender teacher and GSA advisor at a public alternative high school in a Pacific Northwest school district.
 
Results and Scholarly Significance
The paper reflects on the successes and shortcomings of the collaborative institutional response to transgender student needs, including but not limited to:

• The swiftness of the district’s response to teachers’ concern about the use of transgender students’ deadnames.
• Complications related to serving transgender students via the online classroom management platform which for some involved the risk of being outed to unsupportive parents and guardians.
• The need to better support guardians of transgender students.

This study has two levels of implication. First, it adds to our understanding of how to serve transgender students in conditions of crisis. Second, it identifies the way teacher knowledge about service to trans students emerges in a still heteronormative school system and how that knowledge circulates and leads to action.

Author

• Makseem Angel Skorodinsky, University of Oregon