Preparing In-Service and Preservice Educators

• In Event: Transgender Studies in K–12 Education: Mapping an Agenda for Research and Practice

Abstract

Schools are heteronormative and cisnormative institutions with histories, buildings, curricula, and personnel entrenched in static binary gender. Educators’ lifetimes of gendered socialization and experiences influence choices about curriculum and classroom management (Payne & Smith 2014; Skelton & Read, 2006; Smith, 2014; Smith & Payne, 2016). Classroom dynamics reflect the assumption that girls and boys are essentially and naturally different (Rands, 2009), and teachers engage with students according to implicit and explicit gender assumptions (Payne & Smith 2014; Skelton & Read, 2006; Smith, 2014), which are disrupted by transgender students (Smith & Payne, 2016). Disruptions lead to anxiety, fear, and feelings of professional incompetence—which can be lessened by addressing knowledge gaps (Smith & Payne, 2014).

In this literature review we critically review research on learning opportunities designed to support teachers in their work with transgender students. Scholarship on pre-service preparation (Airton & Koecher, 2019) and professional development learning (Payne & Smith, 2010, 2011, 2012) tend to collapse sexual and gender diversity under the LGBTQ+ acronym. Because transgender-spectrum K-12 students and teachers face barriers distinct from those faced by non-heterosexual cisgender school peers, we elevate findings specific to transgender-inclusive teacher development. Pre-service literature highlights impacts of curriculum about transgender people on pre-service teachers’ attitudes or sense of preparedness to support transgender students (e.g. Happel-Parkens & Esposito, 2015; Kearns et al., 2017; Kintner-Duffy et al., 2012; Mitton-Kukner et al., 2016; O’Malley et al., 2009; Parsons, 2015). Professional development literature—which generally focuses on LGBTQ issues more broadly—contributes insight about correlations between increased teacher knowledge and positive shifts in teacher attitudes and school climate indicators (Kose, 2009; Payne & Smith, 2010; Szalacha, 2004).

To conclude the chapter, we draw together three common themes from our reviewed pre-service and in-service teacher education literature on supporting transgender-spectrum students and fostering classrooms where gender diversities of all kinds can thrive. These themes are: a relative lack of gender diversity-specific research coupled with a collapse of sexual and gender diversity under the LGBTQ+ acronym; a tension between focusing teacher education on the needs of transgender students versus on how gender itself structures schools and the teaching profession; and, lastly, a pattern of episodic and one-off approaches as opposed to integration in pre-service curricula and the professional routines of educators. Given the rarity of pre-service and in-service education on gender diversity, it is unsurprising that there is a parallel dearth of research. This paper provides guidance on what pre-service and in-service development has the potential to teach about and affirm trans identities.

Authors

• Elizabethe C. Payne, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)

• Lee Airton, Queen's University

• Melissa J. Smith, University of Central Arkansas