Making Gender Policies Your Own: A Comparative Case Study of NYC Schools’ Gender Guidelines Appropriation

• In Event: Equity Leadership in Challenging Contexts: Recovery, Reform, & Gender Policy Implementation

Abstract

In this study, we examine how the NYCDOE’s Gender Policy unfolded in practice, focusing on how schools learned about and responded to the policy. Analyzing interviews with educators, policymakers, and professional providers, we identify and characterize three main patterns through which schools made sense of the policy: (a) Proactive, (b)Reactive, and (c) Antagonistic. In doing so, we highlight the risks of top-down, context-blind implementation as well as the promises of district-scaffolded, whole-school conciliatory process to drive positive cultural change.

Authors

• Carolina Snaider, University of Texas at Austin

• Mauro Moschetti, Autonomous University of Barcelona