Investigating transgender-affirmative education policy in Ontario schools

• In Event: Policy and pedagogy and SOGIE issues in education

Proposal

In May 2016, the Parliament of Canada was presented with Bill C-16, which seeks to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include “gender identity” as a prohibited ground of discrimination, while also seeking to amend the Criminal Code to include “gender identity” as a distinguishing characteristic protected under section 318 (Walker, 2016). This bill received Royal Assent in June 2017, ensuring that the bill will become law. Additionally, the province of Ontario abides by the Ontario Human Rights Act, which has added “gender identity” and “gender expression” as protected grounds against discrimination in 2012. In accordance with Ontario’s progressive sanctioning of gender diverse identities, school boards in Ontario have also attempted to make gender-considerate accommodations. In order to investigate these accommodations, this study is framed by trans and queer scholars to emphasize how transgender identities have been “erased” from public policy-making (Namaste, 2000) and therefore encourages policy-makers to consider a gender complex approach (Rands, 2009) in hopes to achieve gender democratization in schools (Connell, 2009). In this paper presentation, I will discuss my qualitative case study involving three school board policies that were created to accommodate students and staff that do not fit within a gender binary. This case study sought to expand current insight about how the needs of transgender and gender diverse youth are being understood and addressed in the Canadian education system (Browne, 2004; Cavanagh, 2010; Kosciw, Greytak, & Diaz, 2009; Ingrey, 2013; Wyss, 2004). This paper undertakes an exploratory analysis that fosters critical reflection on the particularity of the processes involved in trans-affirmative education policy formulation. Further, by understanding how such policy texts are introduced and enacted (Ball, 2015), this study turns to examine broader implications of introducing legal policy sanctions for gender variant people, globally. As such, this paper examines the implications of trans-affirmative policy processes in addressing the needs of transgender and gender diverse students in the school system as a basis for drawing out the significance for educators and policy-makers.

In order to examine these implications, this study involved critical policy analyses of three trans-affirmative policies from three separate school boards in Ontario, Canada. Following these critical policy analyses, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy-makers, administrators and educators in order to inspect the gaps in the policy-practice nexus. In doing so, I sought to address the question of enactment with regards to examining the role of heteronormative and cisgenderist (Serano, 2009) ideologies infused in the Canadian education system. Despite the attempts made by school boards to address alarming rates of harassment and victimization faced by transgender and gender diverse students at their schools, this study found that these policies were primarily reactive, with a focus on accommodation and what should be done after accommodations are requested. Additionally, it was discovered that no transgender or gender diverse individual was consulted in the formulation of these policies, pointing to omissions of significant voices from the creation of policies that concern them.

Author

• Kenan Omercajic, The University of Western Ontario