LGBT+ Students’ Agency in Israeli Schools

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Improving School Experience for LGBTQ+ Students: Lessons from International and Transcultural Spaces

Proposal

The past decade witnessed a dramatic growth in research about the school experience of LGBT+ students (Kosciw & Pizmony-Levy, 2016). Past research has focused on key facets of school climate: Exposure to biased language, victimization (e.g., verbal and physical), supports (e.g., curriculum and supportive teachers), well-being (e.g., sense of belonging), and educational outcomes (e.g., GPA, educational and career aspirations). Scholars, however, paid little attention to LGBT+ students’ agency in improving their school experience. In this paper, we seek to address this gap in the literature.

The issue of student agency has increasingly become part of the comparative and international education (CIE) field. Nowadays, for example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conceptualizes student agency as a key factor in the future of education (OECD 2019). Student agency within the school is expressed through the students’ self-preception by having the ability and skills to promote a positive change (Prestley et al., 2015).

Data for this study come from the 2021 Israeli School Climate Study. The authors have conducted the study with The Israeli LGBT + Youth Organization (IGY), a professional organization dedicated to empowering LGBT+ youth within formal and informal education systems. The survey is based on previous work by Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in the United States (for a comparative discussion of IGY and GLSEN surveys, see: Pizmony-Levy & Kosciw, 2016). The survey instrument was designed as a web-based, self-administered questionnaire. Survey items were adapted to better reflect the Israeli context. Additional survey items were adapted from the Violence Monitoring Survey by the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAMA in Hebrew) and from international large-scale assessments (e.g., Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA]). Moreover, original items have been developed to gauge specific aspects of the school climate during COVID19 pandemic and on LGBT+ students’ agency.

The final sample included 1,497 respondents. The sample included respondents aged 12–19 (average 15.4). In terms of gender identity, 52.6% of all respondents are cisgender women, 14.7% cisgender men, 6.7% trans, and the remaining 25.1% defined themselves as undecided, genderqueer, and the like. In terms of sexual orientation, about a third of the respondents (31.1%) defined themselves as lesbians and gays; A slightly higher rate (33.7%) defined themselves as bisexual; and the remaining 35% defined themselves as undecided, queer, pansexual, asexual, and the like. In terms of ethnicity and religious affiliation, most of the respondents are Jews (82.4%). One-tenth of the respondents (11.9%) defined themselves as atheists, and the rest from other religions.

Our results point to two interesting patterns. On one hand, we found the Israeli school climate characterized by high levels of violence against LGBT+ students, and a lack of supportive resources that they experience against the background of their SOGIE. For example, a high proportion of respondents (38%) indicated that in the past year they were verbally harassed and a similar proportion (31%) of respondents indicated that in the past year they were sexually harassed. On the other hand, we found that LGBT+ students express high levels of agency in their schools, especially related to SOGIE issues. For example, the majority of students (83%) reported about their activities to change the school climate for the better. The most common approach reported is talking to friends about ways to reduce LGBTphobic comments (41%). Other common approaches include talking to teachers about ways to reduce verbal violence, and collaborating with students to improve school climate. These findings are consistent with our findings from the qualitative analysis that shed light on additional manifestations of agency among LGBT+ students as well as on various educational and social aspects in need of improvement from their experiences. Moreover, our findings point to the impact of the school climate on the levels of agency that students express. Among respondents who indicated that they did not learn anything positive in school about the LGBT+ community, 40% indicated a high level of change agency. However, among respondents who indicated that they did learn something positive about the LGBT+ community, the proportion of respondents who indicated a high level of agency was higher (53%).

In this paper presentation, we will present these and other findings to demonstrate agency levels among LGBT+ students. We will discuss the methodological aspects of this work and propose ways to extend this work through international comparative research.

Author

• Oren Pizmony-Levy, Teachers College, Columbia University