Feminist Teaching with Young Adolescents: Accepting and Affirming Gender Identity

• In Event: Decolonial and Feminist Resistance

Proposal

In this paper, I discuss the dynamic nature of young adolescent development and the complexities of gender identity development during this 10-14 year age group, especially for girls and for LGBTQ+ youth. I argue that a progressive feminist pedagogy is crucial to understanding and responding to the cultural, political, and educational obstacles of these students. Pedagogy must embrace and demand equity, respect diversity and strive for visibility and inclusion as young adolescent students struggle with their gender identity. Especially relevant to the conference theme of “the power of protest”, and the need to challenge collectively to change the status quo and bring alternative approaches--not only teachers but students too must have each other’s backs and all students must become resistors and activists in the public sphere to help change the oppressive and negative educational experiences of girls and LGBTQ+ students. Educational policies, curriculum, and extracurricular activities must support all student needs during this unique and often troubling developmental time of intersecting aspects of identity, especially for those who may not fit the cultural “gender norms”.
Feminist theory and pedagogy are not guided by an essentialist approach but rather embrace a set of epistemological theories, teacher-student relationships, content approaches, and classroom strategies. Through a feminist lens that facilitates an understanding of all inequalities and enables respect for diversity (McCusker, 2017), feminist pedagogy has grown to share core goals of emancipation, resistance, and dissent with other critical pedagogies, often framed around Freire and Giroux. These pedagogies emphasize liberation from injustice and oppressions and space for critical engagement and empowerment. The feminist lens adds emphasis on gender injustice and recognizing collective and individual experiences of the oppressed in social relation, institutions such as education, and structures. The feminist pedagogy framework also includes goals of feminist activism or an experiential component. Developing political consciousness and working toward social justice and social change such as in community organizing or in schools are encouraged (Naples & Bojar, 2002). These goals often necessitate resisting a status quo approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessment (CIA) and facilitating goals of overcoming oppressions and striving for voice and connections.
Recent research indicates that both girls and LGBTQ+ young adolescents have more difficulty finding safe space, belonging, being included in both curriculum and extracurricular activities. For example, the YPulse/confidence code research (2018) discusses girls’ confidence levels falling by 30% in middle school, they have increased anxiety, and can feel left out (Fear of missing out, FOMO), and overwhelmed. “For girls, the transition to middle school is usually when they start to grasp what society really expects from females“ (Hough, 2019), beginning to see themselves as objects and can become anxious and depressed feeling they are not good enough. Ironically, the gains women and girls have made make it more difficult to live up to expectations while still needing to please others and be likable and perfect with pressure to physically look a certain way (Hough, 2019). Social media may exacerbate feelings of being left out. LGBTQ+ students may experience fear and danger rather than safety and care as they are often those who may be victimized and bullied (Martin, 2022). Statistics from the Trevor Project (2022) indicate that young adolescents have higher rates of attempted suicides, more absenteeism, and mental health needs. As more and younger students are coming out about their gender identities in middle schools, we must have more concrete policies, curriculum, and extracurricular ideas to create more equity and justice.
These goals of feminist theory and pedagogy are clearly relevant for teaching young adolescents of all gender identities and striving to change the cultural environments to be more accepting and affirming. Although teachers and students may learn to accept each other and respect Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the policies that many states, but not all, follow, I argue that a middle school teacher of young adolescents must also be affirming—a teacher who upholds, supports, and encourages young people to see themselves as equal, deserving and contributing members of society, regardless of their gender identity. If we cannot create shared vision in our middle schools around these students’ needs, then we must resist and pursue as feminist teachers what we know students need. Changes must be encouraged to make students and parents aware, understanding and respectful. Curriculum must make these needs of students and their identities visible, included, but provide them individual voice and not essentialized experiences. We must help create and be advisors for Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) extracurricular clubs to make sure that students can participate in additional ways of feeling accepted and affirmed in their educational environments. If conflicts arise, we must encourage Restorative Justice Practices (Martin, 2022) to help resolve issues among students and uphold all students’ rights to a safe and educational space.

Author

• Sandra L Stacki, Hofstra University